The Ohio star. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1830-1854, 1853-05-11
RAFENNA, WEDNESDAY NAY II. 1853.

B The following meIodious and touching poem
is from the pen of the late lamented Willis Gay
lord Clark, and was written by him for an early
number of the Knickerbocker Magazine:
A Song of May.
The Springs scented buds all around me are
swelling
There are songs in the stream, there is health
in the gale;
sense of delight in each bosom is dwelling,
As float the pure day-beams DER mountain and
vale;
The desoate reign of Old Winter is broken
The verdure is fresh upon every tree;
OF Natures revival the CHARM and token
OF love- oh thou Spirit of Beauty! to thee.
The sun oofet forth from the halls of the morning
And f1ushes the clouds that begirt his career;
He welcomes the gladness and glory. returning
To rest on the promise and hope of the year;
He fills with rich light all the balm breathing low-
ers-
. He mounts to the zenith ,and laughs on the wave;
He wakes into music the green forest-bowers,
And glds the gay plains which the broad rivers
lave.
The young bird is out on his delicate pinion-
He timidy sails in the infinite sky;
greeting to May, and her fairy dominion,
He pours on the west-wind's fragrant sigh:
Around, above, there are peace and pleasure
The woodlands are sining-the heaven is bright;
The fields are unfolding their emerald treasure,
And mans genial spirit is soaring in light.
Alas, for my weary and care haunted bosom!
The spells ofathe spring-time arouse it no more;
The cong in the wild-wood-the sheen in the bios
The fresh yelling fountaiu-their magic is DER!
When list to the streams-when 1 look on the
flowers.
They tell ofthe past, with so mournful tone,
That l call up the throngs of my long-vanshed
hours,
And sigh that their transports are over and gone
From the wide-spreading earth-from the limit
s less heaven,
There have vanished an eloquent glory and gleam
To my veiled mind no more, is the influence given
Which coloreth life with the hues of dream:
The bloom purpled landscape its Ioveness keep
eth
Ideem that light, as of old, gilds the wave;
But the eye of my spirit in heaviness sleepeth,
Or sees but my youth, and the visions it gave.
Yet it is not that age my years hath descended
lis not that its snow wreaths encircle my brow
But tho newness and sweetness of being are end
I feel not their love kndling wtehery now.
The shadows of death Ger my path have beef
! sweeping
There are those who have loved me debarret
/ from the day:
| The green turf is bright where in peace they ar
/ sleeping,
It is shut to the glow of this present existence
1t hears from the past, a funeral strain;
And it eagerly turns to the high seeming distance
Where the lost blooms ef earth will be gar
nered again;
Where no mildew the soft, damask-rose chee
shall noursh;
Where grief bears no longer the poisonous stins
Where ptiess Death no dark sceptre can flourish
Or stain with his blight the luxuriant sprng.
1t is thus that the hopes which to others are give
Fall cold on my heart in this rich month of MAY
hear the clear anthems that ring through th
heaven;
drink the bland airs that enliven the day;
And if gentle nature, her festival keeping,
Delights not my bosom, ah! do not condemns:
Der the lost and the lovely my spirit is weeping
For my hearts fondest raptures are buried wit
theml
|
The exquisite sadness of these lines is as natur
2 as their melody is beautiful. They will remir
the reader of the kindred feeling expressed b
Byron, in the tribute whice he pays to the your
and gallant Howard, who fell at the battle of WI
terloo:
: .sAnd when stood beneath the fresh green tree
d That living waves where thou di lst cease to live
: And saw around me the wide fields revive
/ With fruits and fertile promise, and the Spring
. Come forth her work of gladness to contriye,
With all her reckless birds upon the wing,
= turned from all she brought to all she could n
bring"