The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1853-01-06

By GEO. d. PRENTICE.

- -
BIZ GEO. d. PRENTICE.
List list what fearful tone was that which
rose
Upon the wind of midnighte ? Nature sounds
No knell DER earth for the departed year,
Yet when its last breath passed into the void
OF the by-gone eternity, heard
Echoed within the chambers Of my soul
sound, perchance tine shadow of a sound.
Wild, strange and dismal, as it were wall,
A 10 81 and blended wall from AL the graves
And sepuichres of ocean and of earth
Upon the Silly air. On wa it not
The solemn voice of old Eternity
Uttering cry, one wild and deep lament,
For his dead child
The year, alas is gone
Forever from the world, He seemed too strong,
Too mighty eer to die. He laid his hand
On breathing millions, and they sank beneath
The green grass of the grave he blew aloud
The umpet-blast of battle, and dark hosts
Met in the mortal shock, and when the tiamo
And smoke of conflict had gone by, they lay
Like autumns red leaves the plain; he pas
sed
O. er earth, and, ct each wave of his broad
wings,
Volcano. earthquakes, whirlwind, storm, and
food
Sprang up beneath the silSat spell and wrought
The fearful errands of their destiny;
Yet now his great mission done, he hes
On scorched and broken pinions with the dead,
There, there to sleep.
What is Time!
ga nt power stern, vast, and bodiless,
That We may feel but never see. We gaze
With aching eyes into the past, and there
We see thousand shapes OF light and gloom
Floating like atoms in the palld beams
Of mournful memory, but the perished year
Is al unseen. From thence We sadly turn,
And, gazing the future, we behold
Dim, countless Phantoms troopng from its dark
unfathoued ocean to the lonely shore
OF earthly being, but the coming years
Are all invisible. And then we pause
And gaze above, srouaJ, beHeath, and 10 ,
Our eyes startled by the mighty deeds
Of the now passing time; the iron weight
OF his stern presence rests upon our ouls ;
We feel the awful spectre touch brows
With his cold death like finger; and we hear
The deep and mingled roar that rises up
From ali his M shty doings our earth;
And yet he has form to cast its slean
Or shadow On our sigh.
The parted year
Called forth from earth a blooming Paradise
OF sweet spring -fowers-he waved mis- autumn
wand
And they were not. He woke IN human souls
Myriads OF hopes and joys and burning loves,
That seemed like things of immortality
He touched them and they died. Another year,
The gift Of God, is cast beneath the skies,
And what is darkiy hidden in the still
And silent depths of its mysterious months,
We may rot know-thank God We may not
know,
We only know that with each passing month
And day and hour the low deep wall of grief.
The maljenei cry OF agony, the shout
OF fierce ambition, the loud thunder shock
OF bloody conflict, .nl the knell of death
viii echo. each, its one brief moment Ger
q q W ed
And lost forever in the onward sweep
OF its Implying waves.
The midnight skies
Are weeping silent tears rs if they grieVed
For the old tar, and the pale stars look sad
And tremble, as If living, sorrOWing hearts
We're throbbing in their breasts IN vain! in
vain
The faded year is nothing now. The flowers,
The birds the waves the thousand melodies
Of vernal life and nature will come back
Bat he returns more. The winds may search
For him III their far journeying3; the grand
Old ocean with its thunder tones may call
Forever to him IL its ceaseiess dash
Beneath the heavens the bright and burning
stars
With their high tones of Eden minstreIsy
May speak mis- name in their eternal sweep
Along their flaming paths; the comets wild
May seek him by the baleful blaI Ie they spread
Through realms Of ancient night but none of
these
Shall ever find him, for he liveth not
In all the universe of God. Years die,
And centuries die and there will come day
When the dread angel of the Apocalypse,
Standing on land and sea, will lift his hand
Aud swear that time shall be no more.
Yet thou,
! Oh man. wilt never die. The earth will pass
Like a wild dream away, the very heavens
| Be rolled together as scroll, but He,
! Beneath whose feet the sun and stars are dust,
I Hath said that thou shall never die Those
] great
! And awful words of the Omnipotent
! Are caught up and re-echoed to thy soul
/ By all the world of nature. deep voice,
! That tells thee of thy immortality,
| Speaks in the breeze and in the hurricane;
| Blends with the gentle music of the stream
| The loud rush of the. cataract, the peal
From the dar,sx,bosom OF tie cloud, and all
The Il aS;sand mystic casefes OF night
] - 1o;noles with the e,eiasting roar
Deep mn = his wild unrstland swelis
y OF ocean i; IL the angel-synlpies
as Forever m me- eis stars arouni smdnght throne.
'Or sung per,svlLLr, ~ KY, 1881
ard mt. New York and Railroad, as all
= s<s inns through an eSlingly wild and
any Know now settled country buy one would have
thlnly SeeN wereA ,o +l,o;c