Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-09-30
THE A UTUMN WOOD.
A POEM.

A POEM.
ny JAMES A. YOUNG, M. d.
Prince Georges County, Maryland.
/ love the pleasant solitude
OF shady stream and sombre wood,
When Autumn's morn, with gratefulheat,
Has made the deep'ning shadows sweet:
When, thro' the woodland path, which winds
Mid stalwart oaks and clustering vines,
love to rove at Fancy's call,
While round, unnumbercd oil,
The withered leaves of autumn fall.
Alas they mark Times ruthless fight,
His pathway strewn with smiles and tears,
Hopes withered mid the lapse Of years
For human hopes and flowers of spring,
And all that's fair and oil that's bright,
The human heart has loved, take wing,
And, like the leaves of autumn cast,
With bitter memories strew the past.
But if sad thoughts will oft intrude
Amid the bright autumnal wood,
They greet the heart in pleasant mood.
The colors which SO dazzle them,
If tinted by the dying year,
Presage moral, while they shine
To crown the glory of decline.
So age, amid lfes closingyears,
The deathless charms of virtue wears,
Varied and beautiful like these
We note among the autumn trees.
With mlncing step pass along,
Attentive to the mimc's song,
Whose varied notes surpass for me
The proudest strains of minstrelsy.
Above, around, the leafy scene
In autumn's brilliant robes is seen.
The dark columnar oaks arise
Like pillars to support the skies;
And golden light is mottled Ger
. The wide expanse of sylvan floor;
When bright-hued flowers in beauty nod
Amid the green and fragrant sod,
Fit temple Of creations God.
No prayer sectarian rises here,
No cold precisian vainly covers,
The only anthem which hear
The song Of birds, the scent Of flowers,
The full-soul's rapture in this hour,
Fit worship Of that glorious Power
Whose breath created all--whose care
Hath made them simply what they are
A God of equal love and power,
As witnessed by world, flower.
Onward pass in musing mood,
Till, lost within the may wood,
/ sit me down to rest. The trunk
OF some huge tree, decaying, sunk
Where river from its woodland thrown,
Upon the earth it lies, moss grown,
Serves for my humble seat. The hare,
With troubled look and pointed ear,
Is crouchiDg in the thicket near;
And, now in sunshine, now in shade,
Forever murmuring through the glade,
A streamlet rushes by.
The tangled bushes hide it now;
Anon it flashes on the eye,
Lit by the SUMS bright glow;
Now, sparkling DER its pebbly bed,
Its laughing tide is lightly led;
Now, stayed by the INSTRUCTED bow,
Its gathered waters slowly 60,
Till suddenly they overflow,
And, bounding Ger the dam which stayed,
They fall in miniature cascade.
Above me spreads the azure heaven
In bright unchanging blue,
Where the proud leafy dome is riven
Forever smiling through.
Forever All, what thoughts will rise
While gazing on yon changeless skies
Forever, and for aye,
Who shall say
When yon bright skies shall pass away
Six thousand years agone the sun
Was blazing in those skies;
How many changing years must run
Ere all their glory dies!
Ages ago your vault was spread
In glorious beauty overhead;
Morning and night as now would ceme.
To break in light or close in glooI
The changing seasons lightly pass'd--
The summers breath, tie winters bIast--
And ever as they went OF came
Behold yon changeiess skies the Same!
And myriads OF our race since then
Have fallen, yielded to sure decay,
And mountain height and shady glen
Are rich with human clay.
The very earth on which tread
May hold the ashes Of the dead
Yon little flower which faunts the day
Draws all its beauty from decay;
Those forests vast take strength and grow
From Wondering millions Of our race.
They were, they are not; and shall we
Escape their fearful destiny
know not and cannot know
To what dark bourne the soul must go;
But this feel while musing here,
Beside the sadly closing year
All things alike attest Gods care
Tho manhoods strength and beauty's form
Alike be doomed to feed the worm,
The soul lie still immortal! This,
Or If in torture, If in bliss,
Shall triumph over Death and Timel
Nature proclaims the truth sublime
And Reason witnesseth for man,
Deprived of his immortal soul
Systems and Suns in darkness roll,
Creation has no plan
What tho uncounted worlds revolye
And race succeed to race for aye,
Mans Immortality must solve
The problem Of the universe. They
Too in time shall pass away.
And what is left I A record of decay.
Successive changes cloud at last
In fruitless memories Of the past.
Matter elementary hath this immunity
And shall the spirit die
All mol beyond yon azure sky