The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-12-07

I, Like music winding through the gras
A painted boat with even prov;
:, A young man seated at the bow,
!. !. Past village and past meadow land,
i Who saileth singing, harp IN hand,
Stirring anon, with feathery fan,
Both painted butterfly and man.
n And he is young, and hath no fear,
y Though he must sail for many year
While woodlands shift from green to
IT brown,
And here and there upsprings town
And here and there town turn gray,
4 As he sails singing on his way.
: Old men are gathered on the walk,
And gossips listen to their talk,
They-shake their heads: An idle whim
L. this long jaunt to one like him;
Who hath nc bread except his song.
Must i'll perform its journey long"
Good men of sense, well fed and sleek,
Take up the cue, and thus bespeak;
"a harp, an oar, painted boat,
Are idle things not worth a groat;
Easy enough the end to tell
H: loveth song and harp too WELL"
And ancient women at their tea
Take up the gossip mournfully:
"Old men, with shayen boards and
shorn,
Will sleep beyond the break of morn
And youths will wax gray BEARDED men
Ere he sails singing hack again"
But he is bold, and hath no fear
Though he must sail for many n year;
While farmers gather in tEelr shcaves,
Whit time to fire-clouds turn the leaves
Till, blind with rheum and wheezed
with phlegm,
In hoary sheaves Death gathers them.
The dewdrops CLINT among the grass,
As painted boat and boatman pass;
And sails with him, thro' float or row,
Another boat and man below
\ painted boat with beardless elf,
That seems the likeness OF himself.
Past many hilltop, bald and blear;
Past village and past mimic pier;
Past trees that stand like harpers hoar,
With long moss-bearts ON either shore,
Through sunshine and throug h mist
and rain,
Winding their way unto the main.
So faint they hardly seem 10 stir,
Move boat and -nusing mariner
And he beguiles with harp and song,
From league to league his journey long
Still niihiced by the neither. elf
That seems the likeness of himself.
The harper ceaseth not at noon,
Nor stoppeth yet at peep Of moon;
Nor needs he stars that break on high,
Like golden bubbles in the sky,
Nor any pleasant, placid thing;
He hath that within that makes him
sing.
And If he sleeps, on purple streams
Break sprays of music through his
dreams,
From goblin boatman, harp in hand,
Who toll through goblin moonlight,
and
From kirk and lone, dismantled mill,
Cries the sad singer, whipporwill.
In reverie, idle, vain, and vague,
He windeth seaward, league by league,
AS little recks he pay o pelf,
As If he were painted elf;
AS little recks he bay or ban
AS if he were painted man,
Into the stream jut mimic piers,
And gathered are the villagers
In painted boat he saunters by,
And they but hear the melody;
He makes no motion as to moor,
lie keepeth well from either shore.
For he is bold, and hath no fear,
Though he must sail for many 4 year;
Seeking the gilded thing his whim,
Hath often painted unto HIM
A vast cathedral that at will,
With music names shall quake and
thrill.
From break of dawn to break of dawn.
Singing the boatman saileth on,
his way through many fen,
That sendeth agues into men,
Till he is old, this boatman bold,
And his hand shakes as. if with cold
And sails with him thro' float or row,
A gray old boatman down below
A painted boat, with bearded elf
That seems the likeness of himself;
For the neither boatman, too, is, old,
And his hand shaketh too, with cold.
painted boat with rusted prov,
An old man bending at the bow,
With form so wasted, beard so grim,
rbe neither elf, seems man to him,
And which the man and which the elf
We're cen a riddle to himself.
some paint from off the the boat isworn !
Ind he is wrinkled and forlorn
dildewed with mists or cracked with
heat, t
lie scattered at his feet, |
feseems as like a thing of show s
Is the old boatman down below
lie makes no wore ror any moan,
lie standeth like a man ofstone: