Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-01-07
THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.
BIZ GEORGE d. PRENTroE.

Gone ! Gone forever Like rushing wave
Another year has burst upon the shore
OF earthly being-and its last low tones,
Wandering in broken accents on the air,
Are dying 70 an echo.
The gay spring
With its young charms has gone, gone With its
leaves,
It's atmosphere of roses its white clouds
Slumbering like sersphs in the air its birds
Telling their love in music. and its streams
Leaping and shouting, from the up-pied rocks
To make the earth echo with the Joy Of waves:
And summer with its dews and showers has gone.
It's rainbows glow ng on the distant cloud
Like spirits Of the storm-its peaceful lakes
Smiling IN their sweet sleep, as If their dreams
Were of the opening flowers and budding trees
And overhsDg1ng sky-and its bright rEists
Resting upon the mountain tops as crowns
Upon the heads Of giants. Autumn, too,
Has gone With all its deeper giories gone.
With its green hills, like affairs of the world
Lifting their rich fruit offerings to their God.
Its cool winds straying mid the forest aisles
To wake the thousand wind Larps; its serene
And holy sunsets hanging DER the West,
Like banners from the bsttlement of heaven;
And its still evenings-when the moon-iit sea
Was ever throbbing-hke the living heart
OF the great Universe. An, these now
But sounds and visions Of the past-their deep
Wild beauty has departed from the earth
And they are gathered to the embrace of death.
Their solemn herald to eternity.
Nor have they gone alone. High human hearts
ts chill on many breast that burned erewhile
With fires that seemed immortal. Joys that leaped
Like angels from the heart and wandered free
In this young morn, to look upon the flowers,
The poetry Of nature, and to list
The woven sounds Of breeze and bird and stream
Upon the night air. have been stricken down
In silence to the dust. Exutant Hope,
That roved forever on the buoyant winds
Like the bright starry birds of Paradise,
And chanted to the ever listing heart
In the wild music of thousand tongues.
Or scared into the open sky until
Nights burning gems seemed jeweled on her brow
Has shut her dropping wings and made her house
Within the voiceless sepulchez. AID Love,
That knelt ct PASSIONS hottest shrine and gazed
On his hearts idol as on some sweet star
Whose purity and distance made it dear,
And dreamed OF ecstacies until his soul
Seemed but Tyre that weakened in the glance
OF the beloved one, he, too, has gone
10 his eternal resting-place. And where
Is stern Ambition? He who madly grasped
At Glory's feeting phantom he who sought
His fame upon the battlefield, and longed
To make has throne pyramid of bones
Amid q sea of blood He. too, has gonei
His stormy voice is mute his mighty arm
Is nerve.ess on it's clod, his very name
rs but a meteor of the night of years
Whose glearn flashed out a moment DER the earth
And faded INTO nothingness. The dream
OF high devotion. Bsauty's bright array
And hfes deep idol memories. all have passed
Or a stream Of soft music, when the winds
Are slumbering on the billow.
Yet why muse
Has gone 70 blend with the mysterious tide
OF old Eternity, and borne along
Upon its heaving breast thousand wrecks
OF glory and of beauty. Yet, why mourn
That such is destiny Another year
Succeedeth TO the past. In their bright round
The seasons come and go the same blue arch
Ths nam nnns ter us ,s VIII hans Ger us yet
Will blossom still at twihghts gentle hour
Like lilies on the tomb of day-and still
Man Will remain to dream as he hath dreamed,
And mark the earth with passion. Love will spring
From the lone tomb Of old affections. Hope,
And Joy, and great Ambition will rise up
As they have risen, and their deeds sill be
Brighter than those engraven ON the scroll
OF past centuries. Even now the sea
OF coming years. beneath whose mighty waves
LIES great events are heaving into birth,
Is tossing to and fro, rs IL the winds
Or heaven were priscned in its soundless depths
And struggling to be free.
Weep not that time
Is pressing On, it 1ih ere long reveal
brighter era to he nations. Harki
Along the vaies and mountains of the earth
There is deep porteptous murmuriug,
Like the swift rush of subterranean streams
Or like the mingled sounds Of earth and air
When the fierce tempest with sonorous wing
Heaves his deep folds upon the rushing winds
ana nurrles onwsrd, with his might of clouds,
Against The eternal mountains. Us the voice
OF infant Freedom, and her stirring call
Is heard and answered in thousand tones,
From every hilltop of her Western home
And lo-h breaks across old oceans flood,
And Freedom! Freedom!" IL the answering
shout
OF nations starting from the spell of years.
ems!
The watchmen of the night have caught the sign.
From tower to tower the signal fires flash free.
And the deep watchword, like the rush of seas
That heralds the volcanoes bursting fame
Is sounding DER the earth. Bright years of Hop
And Life are on the wing. Yon glorious bow
OF Freedom Bonded by the hand of God
Is spanning Times dark surges. It's high arch
A type of Love and Mercy-on the clouds
Tells that the many storms of human life
VIII pass IN silence; and the sinking wavee
Gathering the forms of glory and of peace,
Reflect the undimmed brightness of the heavens