The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1874-12-11
p o E M
BY @. W. ARCHER

Anspicious heaven smiles kindly on this scene;
Stern Winter smooths awhile his rugged front
The gentle Indian Summer, banished hence
BY driving winds, steals back again and stands
Like pensiye maiden at some holy shrine
With face blue.veird, looks sadly on and signs
How our hearts soften at the news ofdeath!
The King of Terrors hallows whom he smites;
We let our tongues run riot in abuse
OF our worst toe, while living; but those tongues
Are check'difs some one whispers, Died last night!
Checked in mid sentence, like the headman's axe
Arrested in mid air by sudden news
OF royal mercy. And II we relent
| Towards those who'ye wrony'd u.s. So when Az
| The dark death angel, swoops upon our friends
And bears them from our sight, fond memory
dwels
With double yearning on the golden past:
| Sets all their virtues in the strongest light
! In lfe's remembered picture, while each fault
| Is thrown in shade or far in background lost
| But when we find, ere many DAYS are gone
Thai tears and longing cannot win them back
| Gross the dark valley, then we rear our shaft
Or during marble and record our love
IT'S all we can. And this tall obeisk,
Like bright angels finger, pure and white,
dark,
Through calm and Storm and on its surface bears,
For future readers, tidings of a life
whence they may learn to win mems hearts below
Anu neuN'H uuoVe. Anu IL the crowned soul
| Of our dead friend, leaving his seat on high
ls lowering near, Qor oft our dead are near
| This monumental offering, to his eyes
Injured to golden streets and peary gates,
| Jasper, ana ruDles, and all precious stones
| StreWn there like pebbles on the ocean beach
And flashing back the glory of Gods face,
| Which no man in the flesh may see and live
If his blest spirit hovers DER us now,
Our tribute-shaft, compard with such bright
scenes,
Would seem TO his rapt vision vain indeed,
But that it truly typiiies our hearts.
Our Secret motives and our inmost thoughts
II these be worthy, pure, on virtue bent,
| No jewel in an archangelic crown,
Nor any in the New Jerusalem,
Shines brighter in the eyes of gazing saints.
Warriors, and statesmen, and the proud of earth
Have had their tribute-pics so high upreared
By toiling thousands that the scudding cloud
Is cleav'd in passing, and so lasting built
That the proud builders names are long forgot
With only mummicd mockeries of mans form
Wondering within to tell the tale of pride
And greatness fall n and died into an echo
But what are monarchs, statesmen, warriors
With blood of innocent millions on their hands
Mid ruin'd fields, grim famine, cities sackd,
Widows forlorn, and starving orphans cry,-
what are they when weigh'd 'gainst one goot
Whose lifelong work was gv'n to scenes o
peace?
Christian leader, whose wide charity
Embraced the world whose warm and yenerou:
heart
Relev'd the poor, to be repaid by love-
Whose peaceful breast ambition could not lure
To leave his flock for lucre, promised fame,
Exalted station, protler'd titles vain
But weak Is praise when goodness is the theme
And every heart already deeply feels
How natures aspect doth become this scene!
How fifty steals the dreary winter on!
No flowers are blooming; no wing'd warbler.
note
Is waited on the zephyr; and still more
VIII it become these scenes when ilcccy snow
: Shall wrap these hillocks in its spotless fold
But come you when the bamy spring returns,
; And, pensive, stray among yon mounds of eurth
You then shall read page from natures book
OF other import,-se wild flowers upspring,-
The wreathing myrtle creeping DER each grave
, The bird shall greet you with joyous song
or brighter climes he has seGn,-zephyrs shall
, sigh,
, Through fir and yew, requiem DER the dead,
Gay butterflies come forth from loathsome she'll
,, And circle hcavenward, decl'd in glorious hues
And as you, solemn, walk there amid dust
Ancestral, naught TO break your reyerie
These things shall mind you of that promis'
morn
, When dust shall put on Immortality;
, When those who love and those who hate shall
rise
From yon low beds ana stand there face to face
, While he their pastor, who so lov'd them ALL
Shall stand forth mid the throng, as he wa
wont,
(But clad in sheening garb, and crowned wit
Ready to hear the words, Servant of God, wei
done!n