The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1870-01-01
MiSreliann.
THE Cs.OstNG YEAR.

IT'S m,dDishrs holy hour. and silence now =
Il broodinG, Ike gentle spirit. DER
The s,ill and pulscess world Hark, on the winds.
The bells deep tones are swelling; it's the knell
Ofthe departed year. No funeral train
Is sweeping past yet on fhe stream and wood.
With melancholy Hight, the moonbesws rest
Like y psle spGtless cloud the air Is stirr'd
As Nv a mourncr's sigh; and on yon cloud
That floats SO still and pscidiy through heaven,
The spirits Of the Seasons seem 10 stand,
Young Spring. bright summer Auunin's solemn form,
A d wl,ter, with his aged loeks-and breathe
In moarnful cadences, that come abroad
Like the far wind-harp'S wild and touching wall.
A melancholy dirgr DER the dead year.
Gone from she earth forever.
'Tisati time
For memory and for tears. Within the deep
Stll chambers of he heart, a spocer dim,
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time,
Heard from the tomb OF ages, points its cold
And solemn finger Ia the bcartifgl
And holy visions, tlat have pasS'd away,
Ard left no shadow Of their loneliness
On the dead waste Of life The specter LIFTS
The conln.ld of Hope and Joy. and Love-
And bending mournfGlly above the pale
Sweet forms that sEmbcr there scaters dead flowers
O'or what has passed to noth,ngness
The year
Has gone. and with IT, many glorious throng
OfhapIY dreams. II mark is on each brow,
lis shadow in each helrsc. In lis swift course
l,waved IFS sccp,cr DER the beautiful,
And they are not. II laid its pal..d hand
Upon the strong man and the naughty form
is ia len, and the flashing eye dim.
II trod the hall ofreyolry, where thronyed
The bright and Joyous; and the fearful wall
Ofstricken one, is heard, where clst the song
And reckless shout resoundcd IL pass'd DER
The ba'tlerlan, where sword, and spear and shield
Flashed in the light of midday and the strength
OF serried hosts is shivcrd. and the grass
Green from the sol! of carnage, waves above
The crushd and Wondering skeleton, 1t came
And faded like wreath of mist at eve;
Yet, ere il melted IN the yicwless air.
II heralded its millions to their home,
In the dim land OF dreams.
Remorseless Time!
Fierce spirit of the glass and scy,he What power
Can stay him in his silent course, or melt
HIS iron heart to pity! On, still OH,
He presses and forever. The proud bird
The condor Of the Andes, that can soar
Through heavens unfathomable depths, or brave
The fury Of the northern hurricane
Ana battle his plumage In the thunder's home
Furls his broad wing at night.fall, and sinks down
10 rest upon his mountain crag but Time
hhoWs not tie weight OF sleep or WEAKNESS;
q nd nights deep darkness has no chain to bind
Ais rushing. pinion.
Revolutions sweep
Der earth, Ike troubled visions DER the breast
or the dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink
Like bubbles on the water fiery isles
Spring blazing from the ocean and 20 back
70 their mysterious caverns mountains rear
To heaven their bold and blacken'd clIffs and how
Their tai! heads to the plain; and empires rise
Gathering the strength of oary centuries,
And rush down, like the Alpine avalanche
Startling the nations; and the very stars
Ton bright and glorious blazonry Of God,
Glitter awhile in their eternal depths
And, like tie Pciad, loyellest Of their train,
shoot from their glorious spheres. and pass swss
To darkle In the trackless void yet Time
Time, the tomb-buider, holds his fierce carver
Dark, stern all ridless, and pauses not
Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path,
To cit and muse, like other conGucror~,
Upon that fearful ruin he hath wrought
SEQ. D. PrsAtbf.