Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-08-25
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The New, or The Live.

The Editor of the Burlington Times has been
blest with the perusal of the poem delivered be-
fore the 90 Owls" by Major c. G. Eastman, of
which mention was made last week, and makes
some extracts rcmarking that
- The topic of the Poem is g The New" or
" The LIVE TODAY" drawn, with much artis-
tic felicity and skill, in contrasts and parallel
isms with :" the crumbled Past " and in the
handling Of it, We think Maj. Eastman has
given utteranee to thought and imagery of
poetic merit quite superior to anything in his
previous very creditable and popular produce
tions, and this is high praise,
The Times gives different idea of the poem
follows;
I'VE judge that 6 the New was written
with less care, and less continuity Of effort, than
Mr.. Eastman IS accustomed, or desires, to be-
stow upon this species of composition. and prob
ably in such intervals as busy men-of-all-work,
like lis poor Editors, happen to find but it
certainly contains passages of uncommon excel
Ience and beauty, all of which we should re-
mors9lessly copy, if we did not believe that the
Whoe under the judiciouS reuiSion of the talent
ed author, will be demanded for publication.
All of which is none too complimentary to
the poetical genius of Maj. Eastman.
The following are the extracts rado by the
Tines
Of gentle Muse while still the tale is told
That crowns the dead, and glorifes the Old,
And books abound in every town and tongue,
Like ancient Herod, death upon the young
be
Tonewer impulse beats the rapid line
Let wandering Snowman croak DER musty shrouds
Unpaok their mummies and alright the crowds,
And bilious bards in paralytic verse.
To all the street their doorous strains rehearse,
We strike the note, and sound the holder lay,
That halls the NEW, and sings the live TODAY
The following passages, especially the invo-
cation Of the Ne,c, appear to us to be par
ticularly happy:
Hail to the New behold her as she stands,
Where breaks the morn along the silent sands
Thestar that through the night the dawning led,
In radiant glory glitters DER her head;
She lifts her brow and 10 + the mists Of night
Creep through the valleys from its wondrous light
(She waves her hand, and this ghosts of many year
That haunt the present fade and disappear)
And wrong and error, long by men misnamed
Shrink from her preserce naked and ashamed.
While all the life her living breath renews,
From blu shing day, the evenings glltterng dews-
The futtering leaf the flower that halls the morn,
The winds that wave the tassels of the corn,
The song of birds, the shoot of waterfalls,
The thousand wings that glance along the walls,
And spring. and hope, and all things rich and rare,
That love the earth, or sweep the liquid air,
Like troops Of children on the lawn at play.
The Old, exhausted, weak and at last
No future hoping, living in the past
Turns sadly back his dim and weary eye,
Where love and hope in mournful records lie
BY foed endeavor broken strength, oppressed,
For quiet yearns and signs to be at rest
Or idly musing over broken schemes,
Like one remembering hafforgotten dreams,
Worn with his griefs and trembling with his fears
fallen
As some pale mourner lingering with the tombs,
Till ghostly midnight DER the landscape glooms
And through the clouds the moons uncertain light
Shows the darkness the headstone white,
Stands trembling as the mourner winds that pass
Lift the light leaf and stir the murmurng grass;
And shuddering at the shapes her fancy weaves,
shrinks from the shadows and the rustng leaves
The New, all life and vigor laughs to scorn,
The chattering ghosts of ago and darkness born,
Her healthy dlsdain the idle fears
The wandering shapes sckly fancy rears;
No ghostly stone, pale sepuchral light,
Deludes her sense sears her fearless sight.
Far to the future-lo! her daring eye
Sweeps the horizon, pcrces to the sky;
Her restless energy all toll essays,
No struggle binders and no force delays
Bold confident, and daring, to her track,
Where Faith grows dizzy and where Hope looks back
She robs the earth of treasures hid below,
In cunning Golfers, centuries ago;
pares her bold course where tabled rivers roll
And seas lie frozen round the Northern pole
Wrings from the sea- the wrecks by tempcsts strown
inyades the upon his royal throne,
Halls to the coming years, that dark and dim,
Lie far and pale on the horizons rim,
And sweeping through realms of brooding right,
prsss hidden worlds and trembling stars to light!