Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-07-03


One half the year shall hill and valley glow
Beneath the ribbed ice and glistening snow,
Unimportured the lily and the rose
Shall not their glory to the eye disclose
Unsought the graceful wheat spre shall not rise,
Waving its full head to the Summer skies;
The luscious fruits that bend the garden bough,
No more shall ripen without care, as now
Through sweat alone shall future days see born
The yellow barley ear and rustling corn
Through toll alone the gazer shall look down
On wide fields waving in the golden-brown
Of reaped ears and ranks of gathered sheayes
At the still hour when sunsets magic weaves
Its web of vermell tissue over all,
And twilight drops from heavens cool, sapphire wall
Thou who vast thankless and uneasy where
A benson foated on each auttering air,
Art banshed from the realms whose glorious sights,
Whose tuneful mornings and resplendent nights,
Whose tender skies with all the CLEAN and glow
Of water, cloud and fruit upon the bough,
And all the love that in and round them shone,
Were weak to bind thee to the Eternal One;
Thus Adam heard and looked with tears half blind,
UE on the happy walls he left behind,
Saw, as he looked, the lordly palm trees rise,
Whose pleasant bloom no more might glad his eyes,
Saw where the blessed waters glistened still,
In many bubbing fount and placid ri
Along whose velvet margin he had walked,
Whilst God was near and angels with him talked.
Saw Ger the ramparts wave the fiery sword,
Obedent to the irrevocable word,
fatal sign, blazing seal that he
No more the beauty of those streams should see;
In all around him, all above, beneath,
He saw the looming shadow of death
That like mighty cloud on earth must fall,
And wrap all life within it's heavy pail,
And heard in all the wandering airs, a moan
Prelusive of the worlds dissolving groan,
mystic tongue within his heart said swo,"
thousand voices from the walls said ''go-
Go from possessions which thou couldst not keep
Into the wids and desert lands to weep,
Where only sweat and groans shall yield the bread
Which Gods great love still spares to thee and thine
Whilst age and anguish bow thy weary head
And pointed thistles round thy temples twine;
Yet while in Adams heart tongue said "wo,''
And from the walls thousand more said "go,''
Another voice from out the lordly palms
Came floating round him with sound like psalms
Rolled from some mighty fame where holy souls
Are lifting rapt eyes to their heavenly goals
At the still twilight hour when, one by ope
The stars come out to hem the great White Throne,
1t bade him hope, it thrilled him like the sound
OF pardon to the culprit who lies bound
And doomed by violated law to die
Ere the next morn shall kindle up the sky
He heard-in part the darkness rolled away
That like an Autumn night around him lay
His eye shot down the gulf of coming years
And saw them not all barrenness and tears
Far down the vista of the parting gloom,
ua bo rIo IL,
He saw the hills their hidden wealth disclose
And deserts robed and shining like the rose;
Saw air and earth, to man, bow willing slaves
Saw all the wealth and wonder of the waves
Saw, from the rocks, Truth like palm tree spring
And all the nations to her shadow bring:
Saw that his race must groan, be torn and tost,
Yet to be banished was not to be lost,
And as that voice came down the whispering breeze
Making strange life in the branchy trees,
It seemed to tell in sylables like these
How future years should strength from weakness bring
And new earth from the old ashes spring.
Go forth, thou banished to thy doom, first sorrow,
then the dust,
Go with thy tears and crown of thorns but not with
out thy trust,
To those who wrought thy woe the earth now lies an
open spoil,
But shall win the treasure back by the hard hand
of toll;
worm is at the heart of earth, cloud upon her
That shall die that cloud shall fly before the
cleaving plough;
Unthomed are the seas of ife deep are the ways of
God;
No eye hath wandered where they wind nor Seraphim
have trod;
Good out of evil he shall bring and though our
son fails,
In darkness still is wrought His will and still His
might avails;
The serpent's coils shall be the steps by which thy
sons shall mount
The thunder that is barbed with death unseals the
By the drops upon the brow and by the toing hand.
Shall man, re-crowned and robed again before his
Maker stand,
The shining share and sickle shall bring the faded
psalms
And sweeter than the murmur of the greencst Eden
Be strong, 0 man, lift up again the head that was
bowed down,
For thou from bitter bramble leaves shalt weave
lily crown;
The stars shall do thee homage, the waves shall be
thy thrall,
The winds and the red thunder shall come running at
thy call;
Long is the way of toll that stretched before thee lies,
With the cashng of the elements and trouble of the
skies.
The curse is the Valleys the is the hills
Through all the pores of earth and air. fiery poison
thrills,
The cries of anger and remorse shall rend the Sum-
mer gales,
And blood shall tinge the rivers and blood shall soak
the Wales,
The ruled against the ruler, sister against the
brother,
Shall turn with heart and eye of friend, the child
against the mother,
Mldew shall fall upon the grass and mildew the
heart,
deserted mart,
And the battle between man and man and right and
wrong go on
To the march of confagration and the music of q
groan,
But the Years and sweeping Ages the spoilers self
shall spoil,
And the glory of the earth shall be the turning of the
soil
For the planets centre round the suns respendent
brow,
As Cherubim and ransomed souls around their Maker
bow,