Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1859-04-08
Fer tie Standard
Homer.
o. y. ELKIss, Sec'y.

We feel delieaey in mentioning the
name Of q man who has brsvely fought
the battle Of life, won the laurel wreath,
and laid down to req in peace. We
feel that We are tTesding On halloEed
ground as We attempt TO pay our tribute
Of respect to bis Wondering ashes
. Sleep on thou prince Of dresmers," said
a literary man over the dust Of Bunyan
in Bunhill6elds, and We feel to say sleep /
on thou monarch Of Poesy's realm, in
thy quiet resting place, mid the bill OF
thy own native Greece; for Homer was
truly the monarch Of poets, though his
portion of worldly goods was small, tho
his pillow was sometimes the earth and
sometimes q throne-the throne Of his
genius, and Of all future ages. His i'm
aginations, fettered during the day by
the cares of life, launched out by night
into the sea Of futurity, and brought
home from its remotest shores spoils Q, /
which we are still learning the value and
meaning. We have often imagined the
blind, bald headed Homer. sitting amid
she evening sunshine of his beautiful
valleys, and in his tremulous notes telling
the simple tale Of
Old, unhappy fi Of things,
And battles long ago."
lifting up Ike curtain the mists Of the
past, and displaying world intensely
/ poetical, peopled by heroes, bards, maid
ems, and numberless ghosts. 1t is a gi-
gantic picture painted on clouds instead
Of canvas, and invested with colors as
/ gorgeous as its shades are dark. His
Illiad opens with sublime complaint; it
frequently irritates into a noble anger
it subdues into irony; 1t meits into pathos-
but its general tone is that OF victorious
exultatioD. The giants were preparing
for war with labor dire, the din Of battle
was heard from afar, the warriors were
clad with brazen aTnors, the tufted hel.
met waved on their heads, yet the god:
were calm, the tnunders of JoVe were 81,
lent, and Apollo proclaimed the amens in
an unknown tongue. His genius reflects
the phases of his general character. L
IS high bold energy, combining the fire
of the warrior, and the enthusiasm O
the past. 1t is a general tone, but it IN
dergoes numerous notifications. At ont
2 time it rises into swell Of grandeur, ii
f which the strings Of the harp SILVER, a
! if the storm were the harper; again
t sinks into a solitary strain, Ike the cry 0
!, the bittern in the lonely pool, and then j
" is a gush Of JOY, or a quick and earnes
cry for deliverance from impending dan
2, ger. How these wild, tameless strain
: have run down through ages; how the
J. have fired the souls of poets, kindled th
e rage Of the warrior, tiDged literatur
= with their undying hues, and found
l. home in many lands, yet seem fresh an
y powerful as ever; yea, they are prepal
ie ing for mightier triumphs than whe
first ceanted. Britain, Germany, an
A. America now MARBLE their strains. an
d doubtless they will yet awaken the dun
ie millions that sleep under ignorances pal
is o thou foster child of Greece. tho
le hast passed away the heroes thou ha
n. emblazoned with glory have faded ar
We gone, and the land Of thy birth is strev
i'll with the ruins Of time. The Academ
y, the Porch and the Lyceum no longer r
to sound with the doctrines of the sage al
We the philosopher. The temples Of Dial
and Ephesus are no more, and the Ia
echo Of the oracle of Delphos has di
on the lips Holus; yet thy memorial
name can never die, nor thy fame grc
. dim in the cycles of time. Thou hi
reared no stately palaces, nor toweri
columns TO tell posterity thy fame, J
thou hast a mausolum more enduri
- than marble, which the tempests of be
ven cannot beat against nor destroy.
The proudest monuments that art C
rear will crum5le away, and the m,
and the lichen will grow over their rui
=, n but the cenotaph thou hast reared to
thy glorious achievements to nations
=, to be, viii stand unmarried in all its beal
and perfection, till the swift winged m
r. senger Of God shall declare " that ii
shall be no longer"
a. J. SANBORN
North Middletown, Ky, March -
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