Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1869-07-21
THE TWO.

| ever parted.
| Let speak of things too sacred for stran
gers lips to tell;
For the last time, calm and fearless quiet eyed
| and steady-hearted,
L must wrap my strength about me, and say
uilIy-farewell.
You will look in vain for quvcring lips, or lid;
| with tear drops swelling,
| can say it very calmly, for my struggle ha;
gone by;
/ And the storm and strife and passion, all the
fierce and strange rebellion,
And my soul is still and quiet as the streets oil
Pompeii.
have called you once beloved, for as such l ever
name you,
| Though the song asserts. undoubtingly that
was not love which went;
| l. alas, have found it fasehood-worse than false
hood, let it shame you
! have loved you-but affection never was SO
| vainly spent.
would trembfe at no suffering. would shrink
from no affection,
To unlearn the hitter wisdom which your will
| has made me know:
Had I earned a Savior's privilege by bearing
Crucisxion,
had wrought out your redemption from my
! anguish long ago.
Not come to meet you-not we
talk together,
| Ere between our hearts had fallen the black
| shade of this eclipse;
Not as then l sit before you-in our loves clear
summer weather,
On your knee my forehead resting-with your
hand against my Ups.
by the river,
Where we lived content and happy the swal-
lows in the caves,
But the old tree by the doorway met with a
mournl u shiver-
Dropping down upon my forehead heavy tear
drops from its leaves.
Long / trod the grass grown pathway the
dew-drops fash and quiter-
Watched the shadows as watched theih in that
short anu happy year
Heard the sharp click of the gate-latch, which in
days gone By forever,
Made my listening heart beat faster with the
thought that you hear.
o, the house was very silent, and the rooms were
very lonely,
Shadows crouched in every corner crowding
out the pleasant sun;
When with yearning cry called you, one deri-
sive echo only
Mocked me with hungry quickness mOcked me
cen you have done.
Throu Oh my windows targ gIed vine stems brok enly
the faint light siantcd,
And the air was full Of whispcrings-of vague
and restless ghosts;
BY ad thoughts and moeking memories my ia
vorite room was haupted,
And dead hopes, like walking corpses, gathered
there in CHASTITY hosts.
Oh, vain love- oh. fruitess anguish oh, beloved,
mine no longer.
There was none to cheer me, in that hour of
sorest need
While the long resisted anguish. growing wider,
fcrcer. stronger,
Overwhelmed my soul in its dark torments, like
crushed and broken reed.
Thus has passed my dream of wifehood. tn IN
crown OF life has crumbied
Thus have dropped and died its roses, till the
thorns alone were left;
Like a young bird in its singing. by arrow
pierced and humbled,
Fails into its nest at nightfall, bleeding, dying
and bereft.
/ had hoped that when the pale-Iipped, silent
angel came to claim me,
You would hold me on your bosom while drew
my latest breath
I had hoped that could L. dying, hear your dear
lips softly name me,
1 should never know the meaning of the bit
terness of death
1t is over-we are parted, and to meet no more
hereafter;
Lam dead to you forever though grass grows
o'er'my breast;
But you never can for get her, in your sorrow or
your laughter,
Who for short, sunny summer, was your
dearest and your best.
So farcwel-it had been let ter, had the joy bells
of our bridal
Ringing out their giadsome music, tolled, in
stead, my funerall knell;
Then my soul would lay in writhing, crushed be-
meath a fallen idol,
Saying--Fsrewell once beloved-and forever
more-FAREwELL!
Ep.ToR JoURsAL: The above poem copied
from the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette" OF
1859. b P. ShIlaber.( Mrs. Partington} to whom
it was handed for publication, could give no in
formation regarding its history -.
Yours &c R. REEVES Smith.
CIearGeld July Is. 1859
There is blithesome maiden that lives
next door to me her eyes as black as mid
night, and handsome as can be; her cheeks
are full of dimples, and red as any rose; and
then, this love of mine, too, has got a Ro-
man NOSE | asked her if she'd have me,
THAT was the other night, and this was her
reply, friends: why, Jimmy, you are
Tight" Says /, 81 know | have, love, a
board little wine but that is not the ques-
tion-will you, or not, be mine? And
then she put her face, friends, as near mine