The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-04-10
THE psALM-BOOK IN THE GARRETT
BY BENJAMIN Y. TAYLOR.

~ BENJAMIN r. TAYLOR.
garnet grows human thing
With lonely oriental eyes.
cwhom contding fingers bring
The world in yesterdays disguise
All richer far than noontldc blaze
The soft grey silence Of the air,
As If long years of ended days
had garncred all their twilight, there
The heart can see so clear and far
In such place with such light
God counts His heavens star by star.
And rains them down unclouded night
Where rafiers set their cobwcbb'd feet
Upon the rugged oakcn ledge,
! found a flock Of singers sweet
Like snow-bound sparrows in hedge
In silk of spiders spinning hid,
A long and narrow Psalm-b book lay;
] wrote a name upon the lid,
Then brushed the idle dust away.
All, dotted tIibc with cbon heads
That climb the slender fence along
As black as ink, as thick as weeds,
Ye little Africans of song!
Who wrote upon this page Forge:
Me Not" These cruel leaves OF old
Have crushed to death violet
Sec here its specter's pallid gold.
A pencled whisper during prayer
Is that poor dim and girlish word,
But all, lnger longest where
1t opens of its own accord.
These spotted leaves! How they once baskcd
Beneath the glance of girlhood's eyes,
And parted to the iirzc unaskcd,
As spread the wings Of butterflies.
The book falls open where it will
Broad on the page runs Silver Street
That shining way TO lions Hill
Where base and trebele used to meet
/ shake the leaves. They part at Near
Again they strike the good old tune
The village church is buildcd here
The twilight turns to afternoon.
Old house of Purtanic wood
Through whose implanted window strcamcC
On seats as primitive and rude
As Jacobs pillow when he dreamed.
The white and undiluted day,
Thy naked aisle no roses grace
That blossomed at the shuttle's p.d9;
Nor saints distcmpcrcd bless the place.
Like feuda castles, front 10 front
In timhered oak Of Saxon Thor,
To brave the siege and bear the brunt
or Bunyan's endless Holy War,
The pulpit and the gallery stand
Between the twain peaceful space,
The prayer and praise on either hand,
And girls and Gospel face to face
hear the reverend Elder say,
Hymn fifty first, long meter, sing.
] hear the Psalm.boOks tuttercd play
Like focks of sparrows taking wing.
Armed with fork to pitch the tune,
hear the Deacon call Dundee
And mount as brisk as Benny Doom
His ia, sol, la, and scent the key,
He trees the note for Sister Gray;
The old Scotch warbling strains begin
The base OF Basban leads the way,
And all the girls fall sweety in
How swells the hymn OF heavenly love,
As rise the tides in Fundy'S Bay,
Til all the air below above,
Is sweet with song and caraSay'
\ fugue let loose cheers up the place
With base and tenor, alto, air;
The parts strike In with measured grace.
And something sweet Is everywhere,
As il some warbling brood should build
OF bits OF tunes a singing nest
Each bringing that with which it thrilled
And weaving it with all the rest,
The congrc CATION rise and stand:
Old hundreds rolling thunder conc,
IN heavy surges, slow and grand,
As beats the surf its solemn drums.
tlow comes the time when Chiaa's wall
Is blended with faint perfume
OF whispering Grape and cloudy veil.
That fold within their rustling gloom
some wounded human mourning dove
And fall around some stricken ono
With nothing left alive to love
Below the unregardcd sun!
And now they sing star in sight
The blessed Star of Bethlehem;
md now the air is royal bright
With Coronation's dadcm.
They show me spots Of dimplcd SOD,
They say the girls of old are there
Oh, no, they swell the choirs Of God;
The dear old songs are everywhere