Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1858-09-22
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For the Chronicle.
THE DYING STUDENT.
nv Z. X.

The softest devs on shrub and flower
Were falling slow and still;
The orb of day, its spIendor bright
Had robed in cloak of sable night,
And sunk behind the hill.
Each parting CLEAN OF light had fed.
And hushed in silence deep and dread,
The sleeping landscape hay;
The singing bird had fed toe tree,
And all was hnshsd upon the lea.
Awed by the death OF day.
AT this still hour, in chamber lone,
lamps pale glare was sadly thrown
Upon a couch of death
student lay on bed Of pain,
From which he ne'r would rise again,
So feebly came his breath.
Within that chamber chill and damp,
The feeble light OF one pale lamp,
shone Ger him as he lay;
His sunken eye had lost the FIRE
OF high resolve and proud desire;
Life slowly passed away.
As dying lamps burn more intense,
And send through darkness deep and dense,
With last expiring ray;
As setIng sun at evenings hush
Throws oier the world his softest blush,
Then bids adieu to day
So he, before life's fading light
Was quenched in never ending night,
In deaths eternal gloom;
Breaks forth in language strange and wild,
Or softly sweet and sadly mild,
As flowers aroun1 the tomb.
''0hi is this death7 and can it be
That I, 50 young and glad and free,
Must lie beneath The sod
Until the Angels trump shall sound,
That bids me from my lOwly mound,
Arise to meet my God7
thought to live until my name,
From the far sounding trum2 of fame,
Should echo through the land;
Until the destiny and fate.
OF the renowned and titled great,
held within my hand.
That when died. world might mourn,
And thousands weep, as was borne
Upon the sable bier,
And that the cannon's solemn boom
shorld roll in thunder Ger my tomb,
While nations shed the tear
That might sleep with men renowned.
whose marble tombs should rise around.
In still and quiet vale.
And ore my resting place should rise.
High towering to the vsulted skies,
The chiseled marble, pale.
Il must not be. OH tell me not
That I must die, and be forgot
Thrust foully in the ground,
With not one friend TO shed tear,
Or drop flower upon my bier,
Mid those who stand around.
OH have toiled in ceaseless strife,
And spent the brightest hours Of life
In arch Of hidden lore,
And when my lamp all loEly burned.
The classic page I've slowly turned
Ny aching eyes before.
That no more shall be with thee
Ny books, friends of my heartl
And Virgil, Homer, Horace, too,
I gaze upon them good and true.
And weep that we must part.
Yes, must die; for slow decay
Has fastened on me; day by day
I've sunk in sure decline;
Long years ago, when but a child,
1 prayed a death so slow, so mild
As this, might ne'er be mine.
Oil sooner far that death might call
When rising tempests spread pail
OF darkness DER my head;
When vivid lightnings flashed on high,
And rolling thunder shook the sky,
And all was wild and dread;
When sturdy oaks were bowed and broke
By wild tornado's awful stroke,
Asst rushed in mad career;
When ocean hesving wave on wave,
Hsd hurled into a wat'ry grave
The bold, defying fear.
Oni would die mid name and smoke,
And shout, aud groan, and sabre stroke"
Upon the crimson plain,
When armies proud, with maddened strife,
In wild desport with human life,
Heap up the piles of slainI
But, al, it's vain; it cannot bel
Yes, must die, and soon with thee
Fair world, for aye. must partl
The cold sweat stands upon my brow!
Ny feeble pulse beats slowly nov;
And lead like sinks my heartI
And when the morning sun shall rise.
And hail, with light, the main and skies,
Ast gives the morrow birth,
Ny spirit will have winged its flight
To realms of darkness or ofHght,
To dwell no more on earthl"
The lamps last rays are fully thrown
Der all that chamber still and lone,
The last. upon his brow;
Once hesves his breast with ebbing life;
He breaths sigh, and all the strife
With death, is over now.
isrrs. July, 1858.