Middletown transcript., 1876-09-09
Selatt poetrp.
THE FLOOD OF YEARS.
By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

A Mighty Hand from an eXnauStiess urn
Pours forth the never-ending Flood of Yea
Among the nations. How the rushing wav
Bear all before them On the foremost edg
And there alone, is Life the Present there
Tosses and foams and fills the air with roar
Of mingled noises. There are they who toi
And they who strive and they who feast, an
they
Who hurry to and flo. The sturdy hind
Woodman and deliver with the spade-a
there,
And busy artisan beside his bench,
And pallid student with his written roll.
A moment on the mounting billows SEEN
The food sweeps over them and they al
gone.
The groups of revelers, whose brows al
twined
With roses, ride the topmost swell awhile,
And, as they raise the flowing cups to touc
The clicking brim to brim, are whirle
beneath
The waves and disappear. I hear the jar
OF beaten drums and thunders that brea
forth
From cannon, where the advancing billo'
sends
Up to the sight long files of armed men,
That hurry TO the charge through flame an
smoke,
The torrent bears them under, whelmed an,
hid,
Slayer and slain, in heaps of bloody foam.
Down go the steed and rider; the plumet
chief
Sinks with his followers the head that wear
The imperial diadem goes down beside
The felon's, with cropped ear and branded
cheek;
A <na %or
Bearers and bier and mourners. By the bet
OF one who dies men gather sorrowing,
And women weep aloud. The flood rolls on
The wall is stifed and the sobbing group
Borne under. Hark to that shrill sudder
shout
The cry Of an applauding multitude,
Swayed by some loud-tongued orator, who
wields
The living mass as if be were its soul.
The waters choke the shout and all is still.
Lo, next, a kneeling crowd and one who
spreads
The hands in prayer; the engul6ng wave
o'ertakes
And swallows them and him. A sculptor
wields
The chisel, and the stricken marble grows
To beauty; at his easel, eager-eyed,
A painter stands, and sunshine at his touch
Gathers upon the canvass and life glows;
A poet, as he PAGES to and fro,
Murmurs in sounding lines. Awhile they ride
The advancing billow, till its tossing crest
Strikes them and filings them under, while
their tasks
Are yet unfinished. See mother smile
On her young babe that smiles to her again
The torrent wrests it from her arms she
shrieks
And weeps, and midst her tears is carried
down.
A beam, like that of moonlight, turns the
spray
To glistening pearls; two lovers, hand in
hand,
Rise on the bllowy swell and fondly look
Into each others eyes. The rushing food
filings them apart; the youth goes down, the
maid,
With hands outstretched in vain and stream
ing eyes.
Waits for the next high wave to follow him.
An aged man succeeds; his bending form
Sinks slowly mingling with the sullen stream
Clean the white locks, and then are seen no
more.
Lo, wider grows the stream sea-like
food
Saps earths walled cities; massive palaces
Crumble before it !; fortresses and towers
Dissolve in the swift waters; populous realms,
Swept by the torrent, see their ancient tribes
Engulfed and lost, their very languages
Stified and never to be uttered more.
pause and turn my eyes, and, looking
back,
Where that tumultuous food has passed, see
The silent Ocean of the Past, waste
nf mo tarc uo1forinr 0vnr Ora VOC ifc eharnc
Strewn with the wreck of fleets, where mast
and hull
Drop away piecemeal; battlemented walls
Frown idly, green with moss, and temples
stand
Unroofed, forsaken by the worshipers.
There lie memorial stones, whence time has
gnawed
The craven legends, thrones of kings DER
turned,
The broken affairs of forgotten gods,
of old cities and long streets,
Where never fall of human foot is heard
Upon the desolate pavement. behold
Dim glimmerings of lost jewels far within
The sleeping waters, diamond, sardonyx,
Ruby and topaz, pearl, and chrysolite,
Once glittering at the banquet on fair brows
That long ago were dust and all around,
Are withering bridal wreaths and glossy
locks,
Shorn from fair brows by loving hands, and
scrolls
O'erwritten-haply with fond words of love
And VOWS of ffrlendship-and fair pages flung
Fresh from the printers engine. There they
lie
A moment, and then sink away from sight.
look, and the quick tears are in my eyes,
For behold in every one of these
blighted hope, separate history
Of human sorrow, telling of dear ties
Suddenly broken, dreams of happiness
Dissolved in air, and happy days, too brief,
That sorrowfully ended, and l think
How painfully must the poor heart have beat
Was struck that slew their hope or broke their
peace.
Sadly turn and look before, where yet
The food must pass, and behold mist,
Where swarm dissolving forms, the brood of
Hope,
Divinely fair, that rest on banks of flowers,
DR. wander among rainbows, fading soon J
And reappearing, haply giving place
To shapes of grisly aspect, such as Fear
Molds from the idle air, where serpents lift
L lc ucdu " duu ShclctOuS StTetCu 10TH
The bony arm in menace. Further on
A belt of darkness seems to bar the way,
Long, low and distant, where the Life that Is
Touches the Life to Come. The Flood of Years
Rolls toward it, near and nearer. 1t must pass
That dismal barrier. What is there beyond
Hear what the wise and good have said
Beyond
That belt of darkness still the years roll on
More gently, but with not less mighty sweep.
They gather up again and softly bear
All the sweet lives that late were overwhelmed
And lost to sight-all that in them was good,
Noble and truly great and worthy of love
The lives of infants and ingenious youths,
5ages and sanity women, who have made
Their households happy-all are raised and
borne
By that great current in its onward sweep,
and rippling with caressing waves
Around green islands, fragrant with the
breath #I
Of flowers that never wither. So they pass,
From stage to stage, along the shining course
1f that fair river, broadening like sea.
As its smooth eddies curl along their way,
rhey bring old friends together; hands are
clasped
n joy unspeakable; the mothers arms
Again are folded round the child she loved
And lost. Old sorrows are forgotten now,