Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-08-28

of the CHRoxIcLEMr. Fleming's beautifu
poem, delivered June II, 1875:
There is no Present time: the hours tina
Are but the heralds Of Eternity,
We look around, aud bid them q momen
But ioi ,i'i the messengers speed on thei
The Pasi is gone unto the great Unknown
The Futures 3 ali that we can call our own
. There is no Dearh the weary soul tina
Beneath the burden Of It's sorrows drinks
In the full promise which its Maker gave
OF immortality beyond the grave. So
There is no Lie. II justly that doth lfv,
Which to itself the poisoned cup can give
And when alive in It's own heart are foun(
The seeds which scatter desolation round
The viper stung by It's own venoined fang
The oak that In its BOSOM feels the pang
OF gnawing insect, soon or late must yiel(
The life which IL Beyond their power Y
And man, to-day rejoicing in the light,
Tomorrow settles la the gloom OF night !;
Prepares the fields where all his woes begin
And reaps the harvest which was sown in
There is no life IL each succeeding day
Is but the utt'rance OF the word--Decay. :
The nleanest work OF man above the sod,
Onflives the fairss<, modest work OF God.
The breathing canvas and the living bust
Survive the artist low laid in the dust,
The page of genius and the melting Tyre,
Lose by the poet 3 death, no heay' y'nly fire
These. and all else which fruitful mind
Live while the parent man returns to
But over all at last, with aspect dread,
Stern Ruin lifts his sunrelenting head.
Creator and the creature each must fall,
And one prodigious waste encirele all.
o! mighty, eloquent and sure decay,
What power can hinder thy resistless sway?
Kings have their empires. men their poor
But thou art monarch Of the small and
High as the Heavens, deep as the sounding
sea,
Broad as the earth is thy dread sovereign
The poet sings in numbers sweet and Low
Historians tell iow ages come and go,
The rostrum speaks and willing crowds
Thou hast a Language greater far than they
These for anomeDt chant their feeble
Thy voice IS Atard through never ending
These speak in tones which untaught peo-
Thou utt'rest words which sages bend to
These tell of men who breathe their aeet-
ing breath, 4-ntAlf = 9rp .ilHft
Thou keep'st the records OF the monster
GoSonder where on the .Egean shore
A city stood. Fair, proud was she and bore
The homage OF the nations like Queen.
But all her pride is gone; when once was
The emblems of her greatness, and the
Here Plato walked and truth. once more
Arose on winged words that Heavenward
To bear her, and to human souls to give
" The power by which to other souls they
HereSocrates, whose wisdom uninspired
Seemed near akin to that divinely fired.
Such words OF bitter, bold defiance flung
At all the foes OF Athens. Here were they
At the mention of whose name the millions
Glad reS'renee, and in grateful notes pro-
long
The praise OF art, of eloquence and song.
Here too, with arm extended toward the
The guardian goddess of the city stood;
Around the virgin at every side,
The mighty monuments Of Grecian pride;
Majestic temples, graved by cunning
Their heads serene reared DER the fertile
sands
All til at mind of man or heart conceive,
All that the wealth. ofmonarchs could give.
in Athens, called in conscious
worth. ilffstts t8fste
The eye of Greece, the light ofall the earth,
Deserted now are all her spacious halls.
While Ger her sacred shrines darkness
Greater than that of Egypt when the rod
Of Moses walked the wrath of Israel's God,
No more Athena's arm. apheld in vains
Bid Grecia triumph Ger her foes again,
Intestine strife and venegefui MOslem bold,
And fell destruction, till the doleful sound,
all the speclous earth around,
Was caught at last; and nations paled to
hear
Fair Athens numbered with the things
But is her glory ned Forget the name
That wrapt the world in one seraphic
fame? :. ff fH Nl
OF all her proud creations does not one
Remain to witness what was there begun
And brought TO full completion? Is the
That bade Athenas hundred thrones re-
jOice ~
Hustled In hehodevassstion' Let the
thought
Find other audience, for to Us Is brought,
With every noise her sad desertion hears,
A voice, which passing onward through
strikes on the rock of Time, and then re-
bounds ##.I
In verberations of triumphant sounds
Which wake tn swift remembrance all the
And deeds of once proud Athens, and des-
troy.
The mem 'ry of her sadness. bid us know
She yet doth live DER all the death below,
As when in forest wild a savage feels
The blood soft ebbing from a wound which
His life by slow degrees: he desp'rate turns.
And I'm one last expiring ieath-shout
The triumph of his foe; while all around {
Rocks, hills and valleys low give back the
sound,
Till other tongues the loud refrain declare,
And one eternal echo fills the air.
Yes, silent now are all her pious groves
Which in the days of yore blushed at t;.e
OF Grecian maidens; where Athenian
Were wont to listen to the words OF truth
That fell from lips of sages. But II we are
To believe the tale of them who see
Her desecration; IL. as poets say,
rhere is language that is mute, Decay,
Bids Athens speak in silent words which
press
The tongue OF men or angels to confess
It's lack OF utterance, as in mournfui tones,
rhe voice Of all her mourning stiffness
Full on the heart, made to again recall
rhe story OF her greatness and her fall.
In that fair land where noon eternal
fills .r.l -a.rt.s -s... d.
Her langHid hours where every day dream
thrills r.f.. ...a
The soul with bliss, where time bears
plumeless wings,
nd peace the only song that Nature sings;
Where thought Is soul, and on the moss
Of History walks and every title restores;
Where every breeze that sweeps the palms
On perfumed wings becomes aSiren's song;
Where constant summer sits in mellow
days,
And blushing wells herself I'm golden haze;
Beside that stream whose turbid waters
hold
Their course exul.ant DER the wrecks Of
odd;
Where the pale lotus buds and blooms and
rhe lonely towers of ruined Karnak rise.
rhey seem u memory enthroned; they
stand
Like last survivors of a battle band.
stone, rent or rain-print speak in tones di-
rhey tell of glory, pride, ambition, fame,
That waits upon consumption. And to
seek
More fit expression for the things which
speak
Thus their disconsolation, were to try
To sadden sorrow, and attempts to dry
A fountain of sweet discourse whose pro-
found, -
Dark and impenetrable depths resound
\ OF to the hand OF Man.
These are few
Of all the works of Ruin; but as the dew
Of Heaven distills alike upon the blade
OF tiny grass and on the oak whose shade
Makes room for ample shelter, so the pail
Descends of Ruin, till its mantle fall -
Not on the great alone, but on the whole
of infinite creation. Tn immortal soul
OF man alone Is free. The body cold,
Deep in the earth is laid TO wint the mold
or dissolution but the spirit strong
up on wings of eagles, and a song
Sweeter than that of Athens or the cline
ffords of Egypt, eldest born of Time.
Breaks on the raptured ear, and bids the
soul
Exuitant leap beyond the unseen goal
That marks the wreck of ages, and declare
It's fitness for those glorious mansions
where
Eternal sunshine all around is spread,
And "Dusf TO Dnsf'sha nevermore be said.
IN JNo. .. FLEMING.