Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1852-05-26

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4 Nd that the .m$ $Stdfy OF the seeds decay
Il but the promise Of the coming life.
Each towering oak that lifts its living head
To the broad sunlight. in eternal strength,
Gforiee to tell thee that the acorn died.
The flowers that spring above their last years
grave -..
Are eloquent with the voice Of life and hope
And the green trees clap their rejoicing hands
Waving in triumph DER the earth's decay!
Yet not alone shall flower and forest raise
The voice of triumph and the hymn of life.
The insect brood are there each painted wing
That futters in the sunshine, broke but now
From the close cerements Of worms own
shroud,
Is telling, as it flies. how life may spring
In lis glad beauty from the gloom OF death.
Where the crushed mould beneath the sunken
foot
Seems but the sepulchre of old decay,
Turn thou keener glance and thou shalt find
The gathered myriads o: mimic world.
The breath OF evening and the su.try morn
Bears on its wing cloud of Witnesses,
That earth from her unnumbered caves of death
Sends forth mighter tide of teeming life.
Raise then the hymn to Immortalityi
The broad green pralries and the wilderness,
And the old cities where the dead have slept,
Age upon age, thousand graves in cne,
Shall yet oe crowded with the living forms
OF nyriads, waking from the silent dust.
Kings that Ny down in state and earth's poor
slaves
Resting together in one fond embrace.
| The white haired patriarch and the tender babe,
Grown old together IN the flight of years,
| They of immortal fame and they whose praise
Was never sounded in the ears Of men,
Archon and priest and the poor common crowd
| All the vast concourse in the halls of death,
Shall waken from the dreams of 81 ent years
Ill II. i 3 al. IL
Ay, learn the lesson. Though the worm shall
| be
Thy brother in the mystery of death
And all shall, humble ard proud and gay
Together. to earth's mighty charnel-house,
Yet the Immortal is thy heritage!
The grave shall gather thee: yet thou shall
| come, ......
In rags or purple, but arrayed those
Whose mortal put on Immortality!
Then mourn not when thou markest the decay
or Nature; and her solemn hymn Of death s-
| That other voice, with its rejoicing tones,
Breaks from the mould with every bursting
flower,
30 grave thy victory" And thou. o man.
Burdened with sorrow at the woes that crowd
Thy narrow heritage, lift up thy head
In the strong hope of the undving life,
And shout the Hymn of Immortality!
i he dear departed tnat nave passed away
To the still house of death, leaving thine own
The gray haired sire that died in blessing thee
Mother or sweetlipped babe. or she who gav'
Thy home the light and bloom of Paradise.
They shall be thine again, when thou shal
pass,
At Gods appointment thro' the shadowy vale
To reach the sunlight of the IMMORTAL HILLS.
And thou that gloriest to lie down with kings
Thine uncrowned head now lowlicr than theirs
Seek thou the lottier & 'ory to be known
A king and priest to God,-when thou shal
! pass
Forth from these silent halls to take thy plac
With pariarchs and prophets and the best
Gone up from every land to people heaven.
So live, that when the mighty caravan.
Which halts one nighttime in the vale Of Deati
Shall strike its white tents for the mornin
march,
Thou shalt mount onward to the Eternal Hill
Thy foot unwearied and thy strength renewe
Like the strong eagle for the upward flight!