Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-07-23
P 0 E 7 Il Y.
THE REFORNIER.
BY JOHN c. WHITTIER.

nj JuhN L. WHITTIER
All grim and soilei with brown and TAM
saw strong one in his wrath,
Shifting the goddess shrincs of man
Along his path.
The Church beneath her trembling dome
Essayed in vain her ghostly charm;
wealth shook within his gilded home
With strange alarm.
Fraud from his secret chambers fed
Before the sunlight bursting in;
oloth drew her pillow DER her head
To drown the din.
Spare" Art implored, lyon holy pile;
That grand, old time-worn turret spare;"
Meek Reverence, kneeling in the aisle
Cried out, /" Forbear :"
drey-bearded Use, who, deaf and blind,
Cropped for his old accustomed stone,
Leaned hn his staff, and wept to find
His seat o'crthrown
Young Romance raised his dreamy eyes,
Ger hung with paly locks of gold
Why smite," he asked in sad surprise,
The fair the old ?"
Yet louder rang the Strong Ones stroke,
Yet nearer flashed his AXIS gleam
Shuddering and sick of heart woke,
As from dream.
/ looked; aside the dust-cloud rolled
The Waster seemed Builder too
Up springing from the ruined Old
l saw the New.
Twas but the ruin of the bad
The wasting of the wrong and i'll;
Whate'er of good the old time had
Was living still.
Calm grew the brows of him feared;
The frown which awcd me passed away,
And left behind smile which cheercd
Like breaking day.
The grain grew green on battle-plains,
Oer swarded war-mounds grazed the COW;
The slave stood forging from his chains
The spade and plough.
Where frewned the fort, pavilions gay
And cottage windows, fower-entwined
Looked out upon the peaceful bay
And hills behind.
Thro' vine-wreathed cups with wine once red,
The lights on brimming crystal fell
Drawn, sparkling, from the rvulet head
And messy well.
Through prison walls, like Heaven-sent hope,
Fresh breezes blew, and sun-beams strayed,
And with the idle gallows-rope
The young child played.
Where the doomed victim in his cell
Had counted DER the weary hours,
dlad schoolgirls, answering to the bell
Came crowned with flowers.
Grown wiser for the lesson given,
fear no longer, for l know
That where the share is deepest driven,
The best fruits grow.
Tho out-worn rite, the old abuse,
The pious fraud transparent grown,
The good held captive in the use
Of wrong alone
These wait their doom, from that great law
Which makes the past time serve to-day;
And fresher life the world shall draw
From their decay.
o. backward looking son of time
The new is old, the old is new,
The cycle Of a change sublime
Still sweeping through
So wisely taught the Indian seer;
Destroying Seva, forming Brahm,
Who wake by turns Earth's love and fear
Are one, the same.
AS idly as, in that old day,
Thou mournest, did thy sires repine.
So, in his time, thy child grown gray,
Shall sigh for thine.
Yet not the less for them or thou
The eternal step of Progress beats
To that great anthem, calm and slow,
Which God repeats
Take heart the Waster builds again
A charmed life old goodness hath
The tares may perish-but the grain
Is not for death
God works in all things; all obey
His first propulsion from the night
Ho, wake and watch ?-the world is gray
With morning light