Columbus Democrat. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 18??-18??, 1853-01-15
New Years Address.

'Twould seem as if wizard spell were laid
Upon the winds, the woods, the waves the
streams;
For all the thousand voices that are wont,
In this deep hour of darkness and of dreams,
To weave their low, mysterious cadences
In one wild chant of spirit-melody,
Are silent now, and there is naught to tell
The ear that nature lives The holy stars,
The watchers of the night, are burning faint,
Like funeral lamps; the dark cloud-shadows
rest
Upon the still earth like pail; tho hills
And mountains stand like mourners; the
tall trees,
Leafess and solemn, bend their tops like
plumes
Above the bier, and 10! countless throng
Of wan and CHASTITY phantoms seem to come
From the dim realm of shadows, to convey
The Old Year to his burial
He is gone!
He breathed no sigh or groan in his death
hour,
But, with the awful stiffness of dream,
Passed to the mystic realm where dwell the
shades
OF years that passed before him. One more
wave,
Bright with our smiles and bitter with our
tears
A wave that has reflected star and cloud,
The blue sky and the tempest's wrath, is
lost
In the great ocean of Eternity,
Whose dark and dread and shoreless waters
hide
The wrecks of empires and the wrecks of
worlds
From every eye but Gods.
All! gazing back
Upon the parted year, we darkly mourn
Its rich and wasted treasures. We recall,
With keen remorse, life's follies and its
crimes,
And tears are swelling in our stricken
Vain tears, alas, how v,inl And see! beside
The shadowy spectre Of the silent Past
A sad and sorrowiug Angel seems to stand,
Who, in tone as mournful as the cry
OF lost soul, rebukes US for our deeds
OF error, and implores us to be true
To earth and Heaven in all the coming time
That may be ours beneath the skies.
Here, here,
At one years burial and another's birth
Here, on this narrow isthmus in the sea,
Times ever-surging sea, oh let us pause
And deeply muse upon the two vast worlds,
Spread out on either hand before our eyes,
The Past and Future. From this lonely
height,
Straining our gaze far backward Ger the plain
That we have swiftly traversed, we behold,
All thickly scattered DER the dreary space,
Jnnumbered mounds, which mark the graves
of joys
And loves and hopes that thronged around
our path,
% charm our eyes and win our happy hearts |
By their sweet smiles d wild enchanting tones,
md then sank down to mingle with the dust,
ike exhalations of the morning. We
,ook earnestly upon the fairy wales,
Where, in life's spring time hours, we
fingered long
o gather garlands Of sweet flowers to deck
he hearts own altars-but no flowers are
there.
he autumn winds and winter tempests swept
-bove their blooming loveliness, and they
erished in theirbright beauty, and their souls
# perfume passed to Heaven, With wearied
eyes,
md sad and aching hearts, we turn away
rom the lone desolations Of the past
0 gaze upon Futurity, and there,
through the long vista of the years, we sec,
With fancy's eye, rich wales, as beautiful
s those through which in childhood's hours
we roved;
nd there, joys, hope and loves, as fresh and
bright
IS those which spraug and perished by our
side,
Gem fitting in the distance, wild and free,
nd sweetly beckoning US to where they {
dwell,
ike young troop Of Fairies.