Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1874-10-15
p0strp.
The Hanging Of the Crane.
BY HENRY W. LoNGrELLow.

| Is the French EXPIRE sion for house-waruins
| or the hrst party given in new house.
| /.
| The lights are out, and gone are all the CUES
| That thronging came with msrriments q n
tests
To celebrate the Hanging of the Crane
| In the new house.-into the night are gone;
But still the fire upon the hearth burns on,
And alone remain.
o fortunate, o happy dsy.
When new household iinds its place
Among the myriad homes of earth,
Like new star Just sprung 10 birth
And rolled on its harmonious way
Into the boundless realms of space
so said the guests In speech and song,
As in the chimney, burning bright,
We hung the iron crane tonight.
And merry was the feast and long.
And now | sit and muse on what NAV be.
And in my vision see, or seem TO see.
Through floating vapors interfused wit
light,
Shapes indeterminate, that CLEAN and fade,
And shadows passing into deeper shade
sink aud elnie the sight,
For two alone, there in the hall,
l. spread the table round and small:
Upon the polished silver shine
The evening lamps, but more divine
The light Of love shines over all:
OF love that sats not mine and thine
But ours. for ours l. thine and mine
They want no guests TO come between
Their tender glances like a screen,
And tell them tales Of land and sea.
And Whatsoever may betide
ne great forgotten worl outside;
lney want no guests their needs must be
Each others own best company
The picture fades; as at a village fair
showman's views dissolve into the air,
10 re-appear transtgured on the screen,
20 IN my iancy this; and now once more
In part ranshgured. through the open door
Appears the self-sane scene.
Sested see the two again,
But not alone they entertain
a little angel unaware,
" Nth face a. round ss The MOON
royal guest with faNen hair,
Who. throned upon his lofty chair.
Drums upon the table with hi. spoon,
Then drops 1t careless on the floor,
10 grasp Al things unseen before.
Ana these celestial manners! These
The ways that win, the arts that please,
An, yes; consider well the guest,
And whatsoe'cr he does seems best;
lie ruleth by the right divine
OF helplessness, so lately born
In purple chamber of the morn.
A. sovereign over thee and thine
Tie speaketh not. and vet there lies
conversation in his eyes:
lhe golden silence OF the Greek
he grayest wisdom of the wise,
Not spoken in language. but in looks.
More legible than printed books,
A. II he could but would not speak.
And now, o monarch absolute.
Thy power IS but TO prove; 70. 10.
Restless. fathomless and slow,
he nurse comes rustling like the sea
And pushes hack thy chair and thee
And 50 goodnight TO Hing and Canute.
As one who walking in the forest sees
A lovely landscape through the parted trees,
Then see. il not for boughs that intervene,
Or As We see the moon some times revealed
Through drifting clouds, and then sSsiu con-
cealed.
So beheld the scene.
There are two guests at table now:
The king. deposed and older grown.
No longer occupies the throne.-
The crown l. on his sisters browt
A Princess from the Fairy Tales,
The very pattern girl of girls.
All covered and embowerei In cIrls,
Rose-tinted from the Isle of tlower-.
And sailing with soft siiken sails
From iar-of Dreamland into ours.
Above their bowls with rims of blue
-Four azure eyes of deeper hue
Are looking. dreamy with delight;
Limpid ~ planets that emerge
Above the oceans rounded verge.
Soft shining through the summer night.
Steadfast they gaze, yet nothing see
Beyond the horizon Of their bowls;
Nor care they forsthe world that rolls
With all its freight Of troubled souls
Into the days that are 10 be.
V.
Again the tossing boughs shut out the scene,
Again the drifting vapOrs intervene.
And the moons pallid disk is hidden quite
And now see the table wider grown,
As round pebble into water thrown
Dilates ring OF light.
see the table wider grown.
| see it garlanded with guests,
As If fair Ariadnes Crown
Out of the sky had fallen down;
Msidens, within whose tender breasts
thousand restfes, hopes and fears,
Forth reaching TO the coming years,
Flutter while, then quiet lie,
Like timid birds that fain would fly,
But do not dare to leave their nests;-
And youths, who in their strength elate
Challenge the van and front Of fate,
Eager champions to be
In the divine knignt-errantry
OF youth, that travels sea and land
Seeking adventures, or pursues
Through cities and through solitudes
Frequented by the lyric Muse,
The phantom with the beckoning hand,
That still alures and still eludes.
o sweet illusions Of the brain.
o sudden thrills of fire and frost.
The world is bright while ye remsin,
And dark and dead when ye are lost.
The meadow-brook, that seemeth to stan,
still,
Quickens its current as it nears the mill;
And so the stream Of Time that lingereth
In level places, and so dull appears,
Runs with q swifter current as 1t nears
The gloomy mills OF Death.
And now, like the magician's scroll,
That in the owners keeping shrinks
With every wish he speaks or thinks,
Till the last wish consumes the whole,
The table dwindles, and again
i see the two alone remain.
The crown Of stars is broken in parts;
Its jewels. brighter that the dsy,
Have one by one been stolen away
To shine in other homes and hearts.
One is y wanderer now afar
In Ceylon or in Zanzibar,
Or sunny regions OF Cathay;
And one is in the boisterous camp,
Mid clink OF arms and horses tramp,
And battles terrible array.
see the patient mother read.
With aching heart, Of wrecks that float
Disabled on those seas remote,
Or Of some great heroic deed
On battlefield, where thousands bleed
To lift our hero into fame.
Anxious she bends her graceful head
Above those chronicles of pain,
And trembles with a secret dread,
| Lest there among the drowned or slain
| She finds the one beloved name.
VII.
| After day Of cloud and wind and rain
| Sometimes the setting sun breaks out again,
And touching all the darksome woods witt
light,
Smiles on the fields, until they laugh and sins
| Then like ruby from the horizons ring
Drops down into the night.
What see now: The night is fair,
| The storm of grief, the clouds of care,
| The wind, the rain, have passed away;
| The lamps are Lit, the fires burn bright,
| The house is full of life and light
| 1t is the Golden Wedding day.
The guests come thronging in once more,
Quick footsteps sound along the hoor.
The trOoping children crowd the stair,
And in and out and everywhere
Flashes along the corridor
The sunshine Of their golden hair.
On the round table in the hall