The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-02-23
THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE.
AN ODE FOR ST vALESTIsE's DAY.
BY MICHAEL scANLAS.


AN ODE FOR ST yALESTISE's DAY
BY MICHAEL scANLAS.
Rome, in her noontide splendor' barbaric but
Had fiune her crimson glory over all the coming
And the the nations sang submission when her
Standard was unfurled,
For bsS mishty march Of conquest thrilled
subiugated worlds
Then war. the iron-visaged, insatiate and grim,
had drawn her aoOratlOh iroin All o1nei sON'" ~
TIL the . roar of wrecking armies rolled like mu-
Till her bosom knew not pity, till her fierce
ewes knew not tears,
For the fiow'ring of her spirit had been olindly
Rv waI's remorseiess legions who had crowned
her for their own.
A. in a Shepherds bosom, so in the heart Of
Tbroned high above red carnage, Love had
found regal home;
Rocked u in her giant passions, wrapped in her
Then pIucked the public homage from the front
submission rom the despot, till his battle pan
As trophies on Loves altar, while heral DIS sang
Thro' ali The tempted city, Love is the greatest
gOd! -.
The people hailed the omen, and day was set
When war should pay allegiance to the monarch
of the heart.
That day beheld Love gazing on the fair, uplifted
OF Rome, and the marble vIsage was lit with
That Visage battfe-molded and seeming fixed as
AS If the touch of pity had softened its lines of
hate;
The bowers of her eager spirit, long crushed in
her battle gloom,
Now leaped TO the genial sunshine anu ouIs1
into full-blown bloom;
For Rome had newly risen to the high oeneI
Had deeper and holier raptures than biood-con-
she that had strangIed pity ami murdered mirth
Rolled that day with laughter, and wept un-
blushing tears.
the mighty wave
Ofthe public voice proclaiming the god who has
Under triumphaI arches, past temples thrown
While seas Of soulful faces look homage on
Ride heralds and war-gemmed legions. their
weapons buried in flowers,
And youths and lithe-limbed maidens, winged
Patrician ard pIebian blending. like thoughts
in q penitents prayer;
All Rome is abroad to worship in the temple Of
Anon comes the chariot of triumph, the victors
And War, in gsrIands wreathed, sits at the feet
of Love.
This was when the Roman in his young wolf
sighted days
Tracked up the everlasting thro' wars mad and
But time with wasting vision looked in the
And it crumbied into ashes, and temple, arch
and dome
CAPPED into shapeless ruin; her affairs were DER
thrown,
song and stone
The fierce, the blind, the lustful; things that up
rose from clay
At the call of the heated passions and reveled
for day
But Love rose young, eternal, above the reach
Above the wreck of empire, beyond the Roman
cline
lands in flame;
That men might cad in wonder some fratr1ci-
dal name,
Guild keep the earth from blushlng in her bril-
dial robes OF flowers,
Nor s'amp out the affections from this throb
bling world of ours;
Their gods, the crimson haloed, were consumed
The aGored and the adorers are long-forgotten
dust.
Gods and men grow olden, but love is ever
To-day. as at creation, are his hymns of rapture
sung;
We clasp hands with the Romans as we set day
To crown him and proclaim him the monarch
of the heart.
Then hail his coming herald, the gentle Valen
tine,
Gull flowers of the affections to strew on Love-
fair shrine,
And come with songs of gladness, sweet pean
of old time,
Pure as the snow of Hecla, warm as the Roman
cline;
Swell. swell the living chorus by the rolling
ages sung:
Tho earth and time grow olden, still Love i
ever young,
Ever young and ever glowing, ever BLESSING
while being blest'-
So WOO him, open armed, oh ye maidens of tn
West,
With the beauty of the Grecian and the vigor @
old Rome;
BE your hearts his living temples, be you
hearths his dearest home.