The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1869-08-12
Poetry.
Tee RRAPRR,s pRRAM.

THE REAPRR's DREAM.
By THOMAS BUoHAEGN READ.
The road was lone: the grass was dank
With night-dew on the briary bank
WhereOn a weary reaper sank.
His garb'was old-his visags tanned;
The rusty sickle IN his hand
CouId find no work In all the land.
he saw the evenings chilly star
Above his native vale afari
A moment on the horizons bar
Il hung-fhen sank as wish sigh
And there the crescent moon went by,
An empty sickle down the sky.
To soOthe bis pain, Sleeps tender palm
Laid on bic brow it's touch ofbalm-
His brain received the slumbsrous CALM
And soon that angel without name,
Her robe dream, her fscs the same,
The giver Of sweet visions, came.
She touched his eyes, no longer sealed,
They saw a troop Of reapers WELD
Their swift blades In a ripened field;
At each thrust of their snowy sleeves,
A thrill ran through the future sheave5,
Rustling like rain on forest leaves.
They we're not bruWny men, who bowed
With harvest-voicss rough and loud,
But spirits, moving as q cloud:
Like little Iightnings in their hold,
The silver siokles manifold
Slid musically through the gold.
Oh, bid the morning stars combine
To match the chorus clear and fine
That rippIed lightly down the hnei
A cadence Of celestial rhyme
The language of that cIoudless cline,
To which their shining hands keep time
Behind them lay the cleaning rows,
Like those long clouds the sunset shows
On amber-meadOWs Of rspOse;
But like wind the binders bright
Soon followed in their mirthful might,
And swept them into sheaves Of light.
Doubling the splendOr Of the plaiu,
There rolled the great celestial vain
To gather in the fallen grain
It's frame was built Of golden bars,
It's glowing wheels we're lit with starsi
The royal Harvest's car cars,
The snowy yoke that drew the load
On cleaning hoofs Of silver trOde,
And music was the only goadi
To no command Of word or beck
It moved, nor felt no other check
Thar one white arm laid on the neck,-
The neck whose light was overwOund
With bells ofIilies, ringing round
Their Odors till the air was drowned;
The starry foreheads meekly borne,
With garlands huoped from horn to hOrnI
Shons like the many-colored morn.
The field was cleared. Home went the bands
Like children linking happy hands
While singing through their fathers lands;
Or, arms around each other thrown,
With amber tressss backward blown,
They moved as they we're Musio's own.
The vision frightened more and more,
He saw the garEer's glowing door,
And sheaves like sunshine strew the floor
The huor vas jaspeT,-golden fails,
Swift sailing IS a whirwind sails,
Throbbed mellow music down the wales.
he saw the mansion-all repOss-
Great corridors and porticOs,
Propped with the columns shining rows;
And these-fJr beauty was the rule
The polished pavements, hard and cool,
Rvdoublsd like crystal pool.
And there the odorous feast was spread,
~. e-r,if, f-ovronrs vridefv shfd
Seemed to the floating music wed.
Seven angels, like the Pleiad Seven,
Their lips to silver cIarionS given,
Blew welcome round the walls Of Heaven.
In skypy garments, silky thin,
The glad rstaiuers fioated in
A thousand forms, and yet no din:
And frou. the visage OF the Lord
Like splendor from the Orient poured,
A smile illumined all the board.
Far few The music's circling sound,
Then foated back with soft rebound,
To juin, not mar, the converse round
Sweet notes that melting still increasrds
Such as ne 'er cheered the bridal feast
Ofking ia the enchanted East.
Did any great door ope or close,
It seemed The birih-time Of repose-
The faint sound died where It arose;
And they who passed from door to door,
Their soft feet on the polished floor
Met their own shadows-nothiug more.
Then once again the groups were drawn
Through corridors, or down the lawn,
Which bloomed in beauty like dawn;
Where countless fountains leapt Away,
Yelling their silvery heights in spray,
The choral people held their way.
There mid the brightest, brightly shone
Dear forms he loved In years agnne,-
The earliest loved the earliest flown;
he heard a mother's sainted tongue,
sisters voice who vanished young,
While one still dearer sweetly sung
NJ further might the scene unfold,
The gazer's voice could not withhold,
The very rapture made him bold;
He cried aloud with cIasped hands,
so happy fields o happy hands,
Who reap the never failing Iandsl
go master Of these brUad estates,
Behold, before your very gates
worn and wanting laborer waits
Let me bat toll amid your grain,
Or be cleaner oD the plain,
So may leave these fields Ofpain
"a cleaner, will follow far,
With never look or word to mar,
Behind the Harvest's yellow car:
All day my hand shall constant be,
And every happy eve shall see
The precious burden borne to Theer'
At morn some reapers neared the place,
Strong men whose feet reooiled apace,-
Then gathered round the upJurned face,
They saw the lines ofpaiu and care,
Yet read in the expression there,
The look az Of an answered prayer.