Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1848-04-08
"Fon THE A
THE HARVESTER.

TIE HARVESTER.
When Ceres first her bounteous gifts bestow-
And first with gold the ripened harvest glow
ed.
No tempered scythe flashed DER the burder-
cd land,
No ready sickle armed the reaper's hand
But slow, with tedious care, the skilless
swain
Plucked with his hand the ears of ripaned
grain:
With rude conrivance shelled the dear
bought prize,
scanty hoard, his wants but i'll supplies.
But soon invention, spring of direst need
That only good to art by Jove deere ID
Fashions some implement, some Informed
blade
The weary gathcrers tedious toll to aid;
Which slow improvements il her progress
slow,
VT still progree-iv'. as III" ag's flow
Cnrnges and alters, till she can produce
Tha light, keen sickle for the reaper's use.
o blade more honored than the warriors
spear,
A. thought of thee what rural scenes appear,
The widespread field of yellow-waving
grain,
The laughing damsel and the iocund swain
Ii numerous pairs their greatiul task they
The while in mirth and rustic wit they vie.
And rocks, and woods, and distant hills pro-
long
The merry echoes of the harvest song.
Such were the scenes that blest thos. happy
days
Ere late refinement changed the maidel's
ways,
When she no more may WELD the shepherds
crook
Nor with her lover ply the reaping-hook.
Brt classic instrument the work is Ger;
Thine ancient glory shall be surg no more -
No more, at eve, when gentle dews descend,
Thy graceful curve shall DER his shoulder
While the tired reaper homeward wends his
To close his labors with the closing day.
Nor yet tn C.r,dle sh III its no lors keep,
Aud cut the yielding corn with lengthed
sweep
With its long fingers graspthe precious grain,
And strew the even swa'h along the plain.
II that fair land which silvery seas enclose.
Midway where, Kalamazoo westward flows,
And where, midst waving fells and meG.
dows CAV,
The famed St. Joseph winds it devious way,
There is a plain extending far and wide,
falr as ltalla IN her uay Ol PRIDE
Fertile as Egypt when her garnerd corn
Fed famished Israel here at early morn
Goes forth train with banner steed and car
An armed band prepared for glorious war -
Not the fierce strife when hosts with hosts
engage,
And thousands fall TO glut tyrants rage,
But nober far the warfare they maintain
OF useful art upon the ripaned grain
How shall sing how skill and art prevail
To Join the sickle with the fan and fail!
How at one stroke the laden ears are shorn
And ready sack is filed with winnowed
corn!
Vast the machine which wheels immense sus-
tain,
And twelve proud s:eeds propel along the
plain;
Huge as that fatal gift that bore concealed,
Those treacherous foes who caused proud
Troy TO yield:-
Or that vast car before whose crushing wheels
10 blind to truth j the Indian pagan kEeels
But not for me in tuneful verse TO name
The various parts of this ingenious frame,
Which with such skill a cunning hand hath
wrought.
They move consenting to the makers thought,
And the glad farmer sees performed the
while,
By tireless hands his tedious three-fold toll.
o wonder-working art by Heaven designed
To bring relief to weary human kind
The curse to soften passed on guilty man,
And e'en remove it if aught earthly can -
Since first our exiled parents learned of thee
To clothe their naked limbs from leafy tree,
No single work of thine will farther 90
To lift that curse from of the laborer's brow :.
Yet something, sober art, we lose by thee -
Thou leavest not the poets fancy free;
Thy noisy progress in confusion filings
His peopled world of fond ideal things -
No mermaid haunts the steamers dashinp
side
To vile the sailor meath the briny tide,
Nor where all day thy clattering wheels have
been
At night win gentle fairy dance upon the