The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1853-01-06
saturday Evening, Ian. L. 1883


CITY OF LANCASTER:
saturday Evening, Ban. 4. 1859
From the Southern Ladies' Book for Nov.
THE DEATH OF TIE YEAR.
ny GEORGE D PRENTICE.
List, list what fearful tone was that which roso
lTpon the wind Of Midnight Nature sounds
No knell DER %. IN for tho departed year;
Yet when its last breath passed into the void
OF the by-gone eternity. heard
Echoed within the chambers of my soul
A sound, perchance the shadow Of a sound,
Wild, strange and dismal, as il were a wall,
A low and blended wall. from all the graves
And sepulehres Of ocean and Of earth
Upon the Silly air. Oh. L was not
The shIemn voice Of old Eternity
Utiering one cry, one wild and deep lament,
For his dead child
The year, ala, ! Is gonc
Forever from the world! He seemed too strong,
Too mighty Ger to die. He laid his hand
In breSthing millions, and they sunk beneath
The green grass of the grave; he b.ew aloud
The trumpet-blast Of battle, and dark hosts
Met inthe mortal shock. and when the lame
And smoke of conflict hac gone by, thew law
Like Autamn's red leaves onthe plain; he passed
Ger Earth, at each wav, Of his broad wings.
Volcano, earthquake whirlwind, storm and food
SPrang up beneath the silent spell, and wrought
The fearful errands Of their destiny:
Yet now, his own great mission dome ha las
On scorched and broken pinions with the dead
There, there to sleep.
What is Timel
a giant-power. stern. vast, and bodiless,
Ihst we may feel, but never sec. We gaze
MIN aching eyes INTO the past, and there
Floating like atoms in the paid beams
OF mournini memory, but the persisted wear
Is all unseen From thence we sadl v turn,
And gazing on the future, we behold
Dim, countless phantors, trooping from its dark
Uniathomed ocean, to the lonely shore
or earthly being, but the coming wears
Are all Invisible. And then We pause
And gaze above, around beneath, and 10!
0gr eyes are startled by the mighty deeds
" the now passing time; the iron weight
" ms stern presence rests upon our souls;
NE ieei the aw nj spectre touch our brows
NUN ms cold death-like finger; and we hear
Inc deep and mingled roar that rises up
trom nj! his mighty doings on our earth;
And yet he has no form to cast its CLEAN
UT shadow on our sight.
Called forth ON earth a blooming Paradise
" sweet spring towers-he waved his autumn wand
AND they were not. lie woke ia human souls
myIiads OF hopes and joys andburning loves.
mat seemed like things Of Immortality
lie touched them and they died. Another wear.
Inc gnt OIL God, Is cast beneath the skies,
And what Is darkly hidden in the still
And silent depths Of its mysterious months,
~ 10y HP bhhOh-ludHk0 Ou. we NAV NOT Know.
We only know that with each passing month
And day and hour, the low, deep wall Of grief,
me maddenedery Of agony, the shout
u nerce ambition, the loud hunder-shock
VI bloody conflict, and the knell Of death
VIII echo, each, its one brief moment DER
me sea OF time, and then be swallowed up
And lost forever in the onward sweep
VI Its IMPLYING waves.
The midnight skies
Are weeping silent tears as IT. they grieved
For the OLD year, and the pale stars look sad
Anduemble, as II living, sorrowing hearts
Were t~hrobbing in their breasts. In vain in yainl
Inc iaded years. nothing now. The flowers,
The birds, tho waves, the thousand melodies
~ yernai life and nature will come back,
y ne hen returns no more. Tho winds may search
Old ocean with it, thunder-tones may call
Forever to him in its ceaseless dash
beneath the heavens; the bright and burning stars
WIN their high tones of Eden minstresly
May speak his name in their eternal sweep
Aiong their flaming pa hs: the comets Wild
May seek him by the baleful blaze they spread
through realms Of Ancientnight; but meme of these
hnall ever md him, for helyeth not
III al the universe OF God. Years die,
And centuries die, and there will como a day
Nnen tho dread angel Of tho Apocalypse,
standing on land and sea. will lift his hand
And swear that time shall b. do more.
Yet thou,
On man, wilt never die. The earth will pass
LNo a VITA dream away, tho very heavens
be rolled together as a scroll, but He,
beneath whose feet the sun and stars arc dust,
Hath said thou shalt never die. Those groat
And awful words Of the Omnipotent
Are caught up and 70. echoed 10 thy soul
By all the world of nature. A deep voice,
That tells thee of thy immortality p
Speaks in the breeze and In the hurricane;
Blends with the gentle music Of the stream,
The loud rush Of the cataract, the pea.
From the dark bosom of the cloud, and all
The thousand mystic cadences Of night,
Deep Iningles with the everlasting roar
0f ocean In his wild unrest, and swells
Forever In the a~ngel-symphoniea
Sung by the stars around The midnight throne.
LOUISVILLE, XIV, 1852.