New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-03-15
[Frem Old and New for March, 1874.
IN THE CEMETERY AT NEW ORLEAN
BY JOSEPH N. FIELD.

en- among ye, silent habtants,
Dim jewellers in this City OF Decay.
Eve's lonely hour fitting season grants
For thought to travel on its clOuded way
Along your streets, and scan your gaunt array.
Imagiu alton opes your sepulchres,
Lifts your damp shrouds, and reads without dis
That awful book of Death. whose legend stirs
The soul nor aught conceas, nor In its lesson errs
Oh, tender cautioni Oh. most pious care!
Which builds up to the sun this wretched show,
Because, fors0oth, the mould is damp below.
None to the arms of Not her Earth may go,
save the unfriended stranger and the slave;
These lest in plain. undecOrated woe,
And pay small tribute for their humble grave;
They lie till others come the same brief rest t.
crave.
What mean these Heightened mounds of whitenet
Which spread like margins round deaths gloom,
Nor grass, nor flower, nor weed here springs t,
The cherries desolation to assuage.
Here lie the spOiis of pestilentlal rage,
The shrOudless victims of the iend disease,
The Just, tine venai, infancy and age.
In quick LINED trenches minge all degrees.
RObbing both priest and worm OF their accustomed
fees.
Thousands are cast in these devouring beds
The proud the base-ay even the wretched black
Intrldes uniformed at, among naughty heads.
One fearful despot. in his sweeping track,
And here they lie; and of the smtten host
What memory remainsl They died, good lack
New friends, new mates,regrets are quickly lost
debts increased.
Obi it's a teeming volume. Pause again;
Another moral gapes upon the sight;
This roofless tomb. where wind and sun and rain
Beat on these shapeless bones, disjOinted, white,
Bleached by the heat Of day and dews OF night.
A lizard nestles in yon grinning she'll
Sports in those sockets, once twin OF bs OF light
In one brief hour than in a thousand sermons
dwell.
am among We; and feel a stern
And bitter JOY in reHdng from the grave
Its vanity Of monument and urn.
Here lies CrGsus; yonder rests his slave;
The sculptured marble, rich man, looks most
Yet thou art Shiny rottenness beneath;
And yOn poor wretch, Ger whom the rank weeds
Net eooner will breed worms. Life breeds in
Alike meath hammered aisles. or bleak and barren
heath
Gaunt, CHASTITY king say feel pride
In taking from thy form each vain disguise;
With daring hand fling thy portals wide,
And meet thy terrOrs with untlmching eyes.
Where darts the spirit when the body dies
reck not but its state, whate er that be-
It's future Hie-is the last hope that ties
A cord to guide my path; break that for me,
I'd barter with a snail my hours of misery.
Whose reptile tenants round it's confines throng,
Crawl, stang and die; and sage fools say It's WE'LL
What is that mind " hch lifts up among
Lees cunning brutesl The power to combat
wrong
And practice it. His TRUTH To faw and lie,
And rail at tyrants, till himself grows strong.
His faith! Believe you foreve die
Spreading hell DER earth to build heaven on
high.
His grandeur glory-whati tinseled robe
That guardeth not its wearer from chill.
His strength, which binds the seas, and cleaves the
globe,
Yields to the grippe of a Outrageous pill.
He conquele worlds. at last a hole to fill;
And idler fools agree to call him great.
From Troy to Waterloo, the story still
Teens but with folly-pride would call it fate:
And each new age hath dawned new follies to
create
What boots II than some spirits have arisen
Within the circle of six Thousand years,
Strange passing lights within this moral prison,
One ray to cheer an age of crime and tearsl
The same vain, abject creature still appears;
Enthusiasts hail the godlike reign of mind;
And freedom DER y world her banner rears,
Yea sophists mouth new creeds fresh slaves to
bind;
And factions buzzards drive the eagle down the
wind.