The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-10-13


The lights are out, and gone are ali the guests
That thronging came with merriment ana
To celebrate the hanging of the crane
In the new hOuSe-tnto the night are gone;
But still the fire upon the hearth burns on;
And alone remain
o fortunate, o happy day!
When new household finds its clace
Among the myriad homes or earth,
Like new star just sprung to birth
And rolled on its harmonious way
Into toe boundless realms of space!
SO said tine guests in speech and sosg'
As in he chimney, burning Orlght,
We hung the iron crane tonight,
And merry was the feast and long.
And now 1 sit and muse on what may be,
And in nay vision see, or seem to see,
Through hoallng Vapors lnteriusea Win
light.
shapes iadetermlnate, that gleam and fade.
AS shad oTs passing INTO per shaoe
Sink and elude the sight.
For two alone. there in the hall,
Il spread the table round and small;
Upon the polished silver shine
The evening lamps, but more divine
The light of love shines over all;
or love that says not mine and thine
But ours, for ours is thine and mine.
They want no guests to come between
Their tender glances like screen,
And tell them tales of land and sea,
And whatsoever may betide
The great forgotten world outside;
They want no guests; they needs must be
Each others own best company.
III.
The picture fades; as at a village fair
A sh Owman'S views dissolve into the air,
To reappe ar TRANSPORTED on the screen,
So In my fancy this; and now once more
In part TRANSPORTED, through the open door
Appears the self same scene.
Seated see the two again,
But not alone; they e1tertain
A little angel unaware,
With face as round as in the moon;
A royal guest with faXen hair,
Who, throned upon his lofty chair,
Drums on the table with his spoon,
Then drops il careless on the floor,
To grasp at things unseen before.
Are these celestial manners? These
The ways that win, the arts that please?
And whatsoever he does seems best;
He ruleth by the right divine
OF hel plessness, so lately born
In purple chambers of the morn,
As sovereign over thee and thine.
He speaketh not, and yet there lies
A conversation in his eyes;
The )lden silence OF the Greek,
The graveSt wisdom of the wise,
Not spoke in language, but in looks
More Iegible than printed books,
As If he could but would not speak.
And now, monarch absolute,
Thy power is put to proof; for lol
Res; less fathOmleSS and slow,
The nurse comes rustling like the sea,
And pushes back thy chair and thee,
And so goodnight to King Canute.
".
AS one who walking in the forest sees
A lovely landscape through the parted trees,
Then sees it not for boughs that intervene,
Or as We see the moon sometimes revealed
Through drifting clouds, and taen again con-
So beheld the scene.
There are two guests at table now;
The king, deposed, and older grown,
No longer occupies the thcOne,-
The crown is on his sisters brow:
\ princess from the Fairy Tales,
Ine very pattern girl of girls,
All covered and embowered in curls,
Rose tinted from the Isle of Flowers,
And sailing with soft Siiken sails
From far off Dreamland into ours.
Above their bowls with rims of blue
-Four azure eyes of deeper hue
Are looking, dreamy with delights;
Ilmp1d as planets that emerge
Above the oceans rounded verge,
SoIt shlnlng through the summer night.
SteadfaSt they gaze, yet nothing see
Beyond the horizOn.of their bowls;
Nor care they for the world that rolls.
With VIII Al its freight of troubled souls
into the days that are to be.
Again the tossing boughs shut out the scene,
Again the drifting vapors inter enc,
And tie moons palIid disk is hidden quite;
And now see the table wider grown,
AS round pebble into water thrown
Diiates ring of light.
see the table wider grown
see it garanded with guests,
As Ii fair Ariadne's crown
Out OF the SKY mad fallen down;
Maidens witain whose tender breasts
thousand restless hopes and fears,
Forth reaching to the coming years,
Fiutter awhile, then quiet lie,
Like timid birds that fain would fly,
But do not dare to leave their nests;-
Ana you las, who in their strength elate
Challenge the van and front of fate
Eager as champions to be
In thedivine knight errantry
Ofyouth, that travels and land
Seeking adventures or pursues
Through cities and through sOlitudes
Ersu nv tta Ixrrfa
That stiIl allures and still eIudes.
% sweet Illusions of the brain!
. sudden thrills of fire aud frost!
The world is bright while ye remain,
And dark and dead when ye are Iostl
VI.
The meadow brook that seemeth to stand still,
Quickens its current as it nears the mill;
And SO the stream of time that Iingereth
In level places, and so dull appears,
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
see the two alone remain.
Its Jewels, brighter than the day,
Have one by one been Glen away
To shine in other homes and hearts.
One is a wanderer now afar
In Ceylon or in Zanzibar,
Or sunny regions of Cathay:
And one is in the boisterouS camp.
Mid clinS OF arms and horses tramp.
And battles terrible array.
l see the patient mother read,
With aching heart, of wrecks that float
Disabled on those seas remote,
Or % some great heroic deed
On battle field, where thousands bleed
TO lift one hero into fame.
Anxious she bends her graceful head
Above those chronicles of pain,
And trembles with secret dread,
Lest there among the drowned or slain
She Hnd 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 with
light,