Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-03-25
Correspondence OF the Herald
q Vermont Poet.

Editoy Of Rutland Daily Herald -
Can any of your readers give any ac-
count of one Milton Ward-a Vermont
er who graduated at Dartmouth College
something like forty years ago, and died
a few years later-the author of a re-
markable poem called ''The Tyre? This
poem is neither to be found, think, in
Miss Hemenways book of Vermont
Poets and Poetry, nor in Griswold's,
Dayckinek's or Bryant's collections, al
though seemingly better worth place
in any Of them than many other things
that are to he found there. The poem
was long ago repeated in a most impress
give manner 10 the writer Of this by one
who was a college acquaintance of the
i'll fated author, and who like his friend
was ill fated, | have never seen it any
where in print except in an early edi-
ton OF Geo. S. HilIard's American
School Reader In Mark Baileys edi-
ton Of that work, fcn' some reason or
other, il is left out. I find on looking
into an o'd Dartmouth Triennial that
Ward took his Masters. degree. The late
Judge Isaac f. Redheld was one of his
classmates. -.r...'
send you copy Of the poem, and
hope YOU will print it, Apart from its
being, as l was told, the hgurative and
prophetic story of the authors wrecked
life, it has always seemed to me to be
fine work Of art At any rate, it is Gun
less my informant was mistakenly, q pO-
EN- by Verraonter whom everybody
has apparently forgotten, and one that
the nice critical taste of George :. Hill
lard found worthy of q place 10 his
book. e...s. .....-. ....... .----.'.
Perhaps, as a rule. in. literature. qnly
healthy things 1--we, or ongnI 10, ms
>poenl Is OF tie morbid sort. The won
der is that such sad and despa!rlng
mood could have found any motive for
expressing itself whatever. E O.
........ THE LYRE. ...-.....
There was Al Tyre, It's said, that hung ~.
+ High waving in the summer air; ....-.
An angel hand its chords had strung,
= And left to breathe its music there. ~.
Each wandering breeze that o'er 1t flew
7 NwO Ike a wilder, swe6ter strain
Than ever she'll of mermaid blew, r..
+ In coral grottOes OF the MANI
when springing from the roses bell
Where ali night he had sweetly slept,
! The zephyr left the ft0Wery d6ll, ...-....
| Bright with the tears that morning
! wept III. -.-...
! n = rose, and o'er the trembling Tyre,
/ waved lightly his soft azure wing
/ yCbst font.iI socb music could inspIel
| what harp such lays of Joy could sing
! Tbe ,nurrnurs OF the shaded rills, ..
| The BIRDS that Sweetly warbled by,
! Aud the soft echo from the mis- -
! We're heard not when that harp was
/ nigh.
I when the lastlight Of fading day,
r Along the bosom of the West, ..
| Tn cOl5rs softly mingled lay ,....... 49,.
! While night had darkened all the rest
! Tben softer than that fading Light,
And sweeter than the lay that rung
! VIA fhrough the silence of the night,
AS solemn Phi!ome!a sung,
l. That harp its primitive murmuTs sighed
i Along the dewY breeze OF even F..
| So clear ana soft they swelled and died,
= TlreV seemed tho echoed songs OF Idea
ven. .E-.. ......--. .r... ...
f. sometimes, when all the air was still,
And not the poplar's foliage trembied,
| That harp was nightly heard 10 thllt q,
/
| And then upon the moons pale beams,
TnearthiY forms were seen TO stray
Whose starry piniOns' trembling CLEANS
, ggWOuld oft around the wild harp play,
But soon the bloom of summer hed,
! t In earth and air it ShOne no more;
! Each flower and leaf fell pale and dead,
While skies their Wintry sternness wore
> / One day, loud blew the northern blast,
The tempest's fury ragged long. 81.
Oh! for some angel, as they passed,
r 10 shield the hafp Of Heavenly song
It shrieked, how could it bear the touch
V The cold rude touch OF such q storm,
Whom cen the zephyr seemed too niue
< Sometimes, though always light. an
q warm .-...... --.. ....... .....
+. Itloudly shrieked,-but ali !! in vain =
= The savage wind more tiercely blew ..
= Onco mOre,-it never shl ieked aga III, g..
O.. For every chord was torn in two o.. e..
e -Itneyer thrilled with anguish more, r.
"a Though beaten by the widest DlaSJ
- Thepang that thus its bosom torres, =, p.
l. Was dreadful, - but it was the lasT- -
And though the smiles of summer p!aye
=. ! :. Gently upon its shattered form, ..t
Il And the light ZephyrS. DER 1t .StFayed. g.
J, I That Tyre they eOnld not wake OF waff
IL