The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-12-21
THE GREELEY MONUMENT.

THE following is the poem read by Ed
Clarence Stedman at the unwilling, in G
wood Cemetery, of the Printers Monume
Horace Greeley:
Once more, dear Mother Earth, we stand
In reverence where thy bounty gave
Our brother, yielded to thy hand,
The sweet protection of the gravel
Well hast thou soothed him through the yea
The years our love and sorrow number
And with thy smiles, and with thy tears.
Made green and fai: his place OF slamber.
Thine be the keeping of that trust;
And ours this image born Of Art
To shine above his hidden dust,
What time the sunrise breeZes part
The trees and with new light enwreathe
Yon ead-until the lips are golden,
And from them music seems to breathe
As from the desert statue olden.
Would it were so. that now we might
Hear once his uttered voice again,
Or hold him present to our sight,
Nor reach with empty hands and vainl
o that, from some far place, were heard
One cadence Of his speech returning
whispered tone, u single word,
Sent back in answer to our yearnng.
The essence which illumed the whole,
And made his living form It's mark
And outw4 I'D likeness: What the soul
That warmed the heart and poised the head,
And spoke the thoughts we now inherit?
Bright force of fire and ether bred
Where art thou now, elusive Spirits
Where, now. the sunburst OF love
Which blended still with sudden wrath
To nerve the righteous hand that strove,
And blaze in the oppressor's paths
Fair Earth, our dust is thine Indeed!
Too soon he reached the voiccess portal
That whittier Lead: Where lies the mead
He gained, and knew himself immortaly
Or tell US, on what distant star,
Where even as here are toll and wrong,
With strength renewed he lifts afar
A voice of aid, war-Cry strongs
What fruit, this stern OlyInpiad past,
Has that rich nature elsewhere yielded,
What conquest gained and knowledge vast,
Why seek 10 know? he little sought,
Himself, to lift the close drawn vail,
Nor for his own salvation wrought
And pleaded, ay, and wore his mail;
No selfish grasp of life, no fear,
Won for mankind his ceaseless caring,
But for themselves he held them dear
Their birth aud shrouded exit sharing.
lot his the feverish wish to live
A SUMMER lie a longer space,
Save that the Eternal Law might give
The boon in common to his race.
Earth, twas thy heaven he loved, and best
Thy precious offs pring, man and woman,
And labor for item seemed but rest
To him, whose nature was so human.
Even here his spirit haply longed
To stay, remembered by our kind,
And v here the haunts of men are thrOnged
Move yet among them. Seek and find
A presence, thoGgh his voice has ceased,
Still, even where we dwell remaining,
With all its tenderest thrills increased
And all it cared to ask, obtaining.
List, how the varied things that took
Tie impress of his passion rare
Make answer! TO the roadways look,
The watercd wales, the hamIrts fair.
He walks unseen the living woods,
The fields, the town, the shaded borough,
And in the pastoral tolitudes
The fai hful East that Graded him,
still. while she deems hernursling sleeps,
Sit by his couch with vision dim;
The plentcous West his feast-day keeps;
The wistful South recalls the ways
OF one who in his love enwouud her,
with arms If comfort thrown around her
He lives wherever men to men
perilous hours his words repeat,
Where clanEs the forge, where gildes the pei
Where toll and traffic crowd the street;
And in whatever time or place
Earth puEest souls thelr purpose stfehStu
Tb. shadow of his name shall lenrtbeu.
Still with us! all the heSrmen cry
VINO read MS heart ana he!o MIN dehF;
The hills declare, lie snail not ole!
The pralrleS answer lie Is mere
immortal thus, no dread OF tate
Be ours, no vain memento morl'
AIastino presence touched with glory.
The star may vanlSh-Dut ray
Sent forth, what mandate can recall!
The circling wave still keeps It's way
That marked turrets seaward tal!;
The least OF muses. uttered strains
Is part OF Natures voice lore'er'
The great tn. GOOD mans hirh endeayor,
Wen may the Droodlhg tarth retahe
Inc form we kne" 10 Dc part
Or bloom ana heroase, iern ana orahe'
New lives that from hef neihg start
Nanght OF Inc soul shall there remain
They came on Void ana daTkneSs eolciy