Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-02-19
0Wortester 4ailp Spp.
BURNS.

The following ode received the award of fif-
ty guinues from the gentlemen who celebrated
the centenary of Burns at the Chrystal Palace,
Sydenham, England. The author is Miss
lisa Craig. 1t is stated there were no less than
six hundred competitors for the prize
THE CENTENARY OF BURNS.
We hail, this morn
A century's nobes birth;
A poet peasant born,
Who more of fames immortal dover
Unto his country brings,
Than all her Kings
AS lamps high set
Upon some earthly eminence-
And to the gazer brighter thence
Than the sphere-lighs they fout,
Dwndle in the distance and die out,
While no star waneth yet;
So through the past,s far reaching night,
Only the star-souls keep their light.
A gentle boy
With moods Of sadness and of mirth,
Quick tears and sudden joy
Grew up beside the PEASANTS hearth
His fathers tolls he shares;
But half his mothers
From his dark searching eyes,
Tho swift to sympathize,
Hid i'll her heart she bears.
At carly morn
His father calls him to the field:
Through the stiff soil that clogs his feet
Chill rain, and harvest heat,
He pods all day; returns at eve outworn,
To the rude fare PEASANTS lot doth yield =
To what else was he born
The God-made King
OF every living thing
lFor his great heart in love could hold them alb
The dumb eyes meeting his by hearth and stall, -
Gifted TO understand
Knew it and sought his hand;
And the most timorous creature had not fed,
Could she his heart have read,
Which ian all feeble things had blessed and sheltered.
To Natures feast
Who knew her nobleSt Suest
And entertained him best
Kingly he came. Her chambers of the east
She dfapd with crimson and with gold,
And pour'd her pure,ioy wines
For him the poet-sould,
For him her anthem rolld,
From the storm-wind among the winter pines
Down to the slenderest note
OF a love warble from the linnet's throat.
But when begins
The array for battle and the trumpet blows
king must leave the feast, and lead the fight,
And with its mortal foes
Grim gathering hosts of sorrows and of sins
Each human soul must close.
And Fame her trumpet blew
And made him mark for all the shafts of fate,
Ihat hencelorth round him flew.
Though he may yield
Hard pressed and wounded fall
}orsaken on the field;
His regal yesments solid;
His crown of half its jewels spoird;
He is a king for all.
Had he but stood aoof
Had he arTayed himself in armor proof
Against temptations darts!
So yearn the good SO those the world calls wise
With vain presumptuous hearts,
Triumphant moralize.
OF martyr woe
sacred shadow on his memory rests;
Tears have not ceased to flow;
Indignant grief yet stirs impetuous breasts,
To think-above that noble soul brought low
That wise and soaring spirit, fooled, enslay'd-
Thus, thus he mad been saved!
1t might notbe!
That heart of harmony
Had been too rudely rent;
Its silver cords which any hand could wound,
Byno hand could be tun'd,
Save by the maker of the instrument,
Its every string who knew, [drew.
And from profaning touch His heavenly gift with
Regretft,l love
His country fain would prove
By grateful honors layish,d on his grave;
Would fain redeem her blame
That he so little at her hands claim,
Who unrewarded gave
To her his lite-bought gift of song and fame.
The land he trod
Hath now become place of pilgrimage;
w here deaTer are the daisies of the sod
That could his song engage.
The hoary hawthorn, Wreathd:
Above the bank on which his limb he flung
While some sweet plant he breathed,
The streams he wandered near
The maidens whom he loved, the songs he sung;
All, all are dear
The arch blue eyes,
Arch but for loves Disguise
OfScotand's daug hters, soften at his strain;
Her hardy sons, set forth across the main
To drive the ploughshare through earths virgin Soils
Tighten with it their tolls;
And sister-lands have learned to love the tongue
In which such songs are sung
Fordoes not song
To the whole world belong?
Is it not given wherever tears can fall,
Wherever hearts can melt, or bushes glow,
Or mirth and sadness mingle as they flow,
heritage to all!