Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-02-11
POET Y.
THE RUINED MIND.

''The withered frame, the ruined mind,
The wreck by passion left behind;
A sLrivelled scroll, scattered leai,
Scared by the Autumn blast oil gref'
Oh what sad, and solemn sight,
TO see the human mind decay =
To watch its waning, Pickering light
Grow feebler, fainter, day BY day.
To see the bright, the glorious spark,
Heaven gave TO light, TO guide the BRAIN,
Grow glmmerng, raylcss, dim aud dark,
Never to be revived again.
To note the powers Of thought decline;
Its stores no genial fruits supply;
The memory but wasted mine,
Where past events in chaos lie.
To see poor Reason, on her throne,
Tottering, yet struggling to maintain
Her seat, reluctant still, 10 own,
Fen 10 herself, the struggle vain.
TO trace in outward forms portrayed,
Ofmofal death, the onward ray,
As day by daS deepening shade
Marks some proud attributes decay.
IT'LL all procaims the sad reverse
OF Heavens design, of Natures plan;
An emblem ofthe heaviest curse
His angry God can bring on man.
The Form, where once he stood contest,
With powers TO rule, with grace to please,
Now nervecss, graceless, racked, depres't,
And trembling at the slightest breeze.
Or bash ing in the noon tide heats,
COuriing the rays that naA would shun,
AS reptiles leave their foul retreats
To stretch them in the Summers sun.
That form bespeaks no Being free
TC act 10 choose TO th!uk, 10 planj
A ial)su image there, we see,
OF what was once the god like man.
The Gesture gwen, where voice alone
Would FAIL expression 10 impGrt
To vivid thought to feelings tone.
70 rouse the mind, 10 thrill the heart
That gesture, like the oosencd sail
Streaming ov- some fast iouuderag deck,
All widely waving 10 the sac,
Now tells the t4ie Of Reasons wreck.
The Features. oh how sad to know
The strange perygr,ion lab'rng there;
Their suljles become the signs OF woe,
Their laugh the signal OF despair.
No more their province, to proclaim
The nnd's intent, the hearts excess
To kindle up, with fancy's flame,
Or passions varied throcs express.
Or warped by some distempercd spell,
No index IN their play is found
The inward working thought to tell.
The Voice, By bouuteous Heaven, designed
The vehicle of thought TO be;
To body forth the stores Of mind,
Aud set her boarded treasures free.
From hives of Wit and Wsdoms lore
Their fruits from man to man TO bear,
Aud pass, from heart TO heart, the store
BY Love, aud Friendship garnered there.
That voice is now an empty sound
gursling brook-a harp unstrung-'
Where notight but babbling noise is found,
Whence no accordant notes arc wrung.e
No,-all untuned all wildly free,
And swayed by impulse now alone,
Its pltcuus task hcncalorth nnSt ha
10 chaunt the dirge OF Reason gone.
The Eye, the glorious orb OF mind,
With all her rich conceptions there;
All sparkling bright, till voice can find
Appropriate forms for them to bear.
The souls pure medium to display
The treasures of her Utmost cell,
And forth, TO kindred stuls convey
What words were ne'cr designed to tell.
That Eve, that eye, oh still It's bright,
All rous-ShnIng-clear-
But an false, lurid light,
For mind and soul are wanting there.
That eve, to outward forms confined,
No inner ray W i'll e'er relume,
lamp sepulchral, now designed
To show poor Reason in her tomb
ELLESDAtE, va. W. u o.