The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-11-02

authorship j
who esssyed to sing, in earlier days,
The Thanatopsis" and the "Hymn to DEATH"
Wake now the Hymn TO Immortality.
Yet once again, man, come forth and view
The haunts of nature walk the waving fields,
Enter the silent groves, or pierce again
The depths Of the uutrodden wilderness,
And she shall teach thee Thou hast learned before
One lessOn-and her Hymn of Death hath fallen
With melancholy sweetness on thine ear;
Yet she shall tell thee, with a myriad tongue
That LIFK is there-life in amounted FORMS
Stealing in silence through the hidden roots,
In every branch that swings, in the green leaves
And waving grain, and the gay summer flowers
That gladden. the behOldeT. Listen now
And she shall teach thee that the dead have slept
But to awaken to more glorious forms
And that the mystery of the seeds decay
Is but the premise Of the coming life.
Each towering oak that lifts its living head
To the broad sunlight in eternal strength
Glories to tell thee that the acorn died.
The flowers that spring above their last years
grave
Are eloquent with the voice of life and hope;
And the green trees clap their rejoicing hands,
Waving in triumph Ger the earth's decay
Yet not alone shall flower and forest raise
The voice of triumph and the hymn of Life.
The INSECT brood are there each painted wing
That hutters in the sunshine, broke but now
Frum the close cerement of a worms own shroudj
Is telling, ms it flies, how life may spring
In ITS glad beauty from the gloom of death.
Where the crushed mold beneath the suuken foot
Seems but the sepulchre of old decay,
Turn thou a keener glance, and thou shalt find
The gathered nlyriads of mimic world.
The breath of evening and the sultry morn
Bear on their wings a cloud of witnesses
That earth from her unuumbered caves Of death
Sends forth mightier tide Of teeming life.
Raise then the Hymn to Immortality
The broad green prairies and the wilderness,
And the old cities where the dead have slept,
Age upon age, a thousand graves in one,
Shall yet be crowded with the living forms
OF myrads, waking from the silent dust.
Kings that lay down in state, and earth's pool
slaves,
Resting together in one fond embrace,
The whitehaircd patriarch and the tender babe
Grown old together in the fight OF years,
They Of immortal fame and they whose praise
Was never sounded in the ears of men
Archon and priest, and the poor common crowd
All the vast concourse in the halls Death
Shall waken from the dreams of silent years
To hail the dawn of the Immortal Day.
Ay, learn the lesson. Though the worm shall bt
Thy brother in the mystery of death,
And all shall pass, humble and proud and gay
Together, to earths mighty charnel-house,
Yet the Immortal is thy heritage
The grave shall gather thee yet thou shalt come
Beggar or prlc,, not as thou went st forth,
In rags or purple, but arrayed as those
| Whose Mortal puts on Immortality;
| Then mourn not when thou makest the decay
of Nature, and her solemn Hymn of Death
Steals with note of sadness to thy heart.
That other voice, with its rejoicing tones,
Breaks from the mold with every bursting flower
90 grave, thy victory !" And thou, o man,
Burdened with sorrow at the woes that crowd
Thy narrow heritage, lit up thy head
| In the strong hope OF the Undying Life,
And shout the Hymn to Immortality.
| The dear departed that have passed away
To the still house Of death, leaving thine own,
The gray haired sire that died in blessing thee
Mother sweet-lipped babe, or she who gave
| Thy home the light and bloom of Paradise
They shall be thine again, and thou shalt pass
| At Gods appointment, through the shadowy yal
To reach the sunlight of the immortal hills.
And thou that goriest to lie down with kings,
| Thine uncrOwned head now lowlier than theirs,
Seek thou the loftier glory to be known
A king and priest to GOd-whcn thou shalt pas
Forth from these silent halls to take thy place
| With patriarchs, and prophets, and the blest
| Gone up from every land to people Heaven.
So live, that when the mighty caravan,
Which halts one nighttime in the Vale of Deatl
Shall strike its white tents for the morning marcl
| Thou shalt mount onward to the eternal hills,
Thy foot unwearied and thy strength renewed,
Like the strong eagles for the upward flight!