The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-12-30
selett poetrp.
THE CLOSING YEAR.
ny oEoneE D. PRENTICE.

IT'S mldnights holy hour-and silence now
Is brooding like gentle Spirit DER
The still and pulseloss world. Hark on the winds
The bells deep tones are swelllng-'tis the knell
or the departed year. No funeral train
fs sweeping past t-yet on the stream and wood,
with melancholy light the moonbeams rest
Like a pale spotless shroud the air Is stirred
As by mourners sigh-and on yon cloud,
That floats so still and pla edy thro heaven,
The spirits of the season seem to stand
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autmn's solemn
form,
And winter with his aged locks,-and breathe,
inimournfnl cadence that coinu abroad
Like the far wind-harps wild and touching wall
Gone from the Earth forever.
'Tis a time.
For memory and for tears. Within the deep,
stu chambers of the heart, spectre dim,
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time,
Heard from the tomb of Ages. points It's cold
And solemn finger TO the beautiful
And holy visions that have passed away,
And left no shadow Of their loyelness
On the dead waste oflfe. That spectre lifts
The cofiin-lid OF Hope and Joy, and Love-
y And, bending mournfully above, the pale
Sweet forms thaslumber there scatters sweet flowers
to'er what has passed to nothingncss The year
Has gone, and, with II, many glorious throng
II or happy dreams. Its mark Is on each brow,
Its shadow In each heart. In It's Wit conrse,
il waved its sceptre DER the beautiful
And they are not. Itlaid Its pallid hand
' Upon the strong man-and the hauty form
Is fallen, and the flashing eye Is dim.
1t trod the hall of revelry where thronged
The bright and joyous-and the fearful wall
OF stricken ones Is heard. where erst the song
And reckless shout resounded. II passed DER
The batte-plain, where sword and spear and shield
.nA In,
n OF serried hosts is shivered and the gns,
Green from the soil of carnage, waves above
\ The crushed and mouderng skeleton, 1t came
And faded like wreath Of mist at eve;
\ Yet, ere IL melted In the yiewless air,
. 1t hcralded Its millions.to their home
In the dim land OF dreams
Renorseless Time
Fierce Spirit ofthe Glass and scytho-what power
Can stay him in his silent course. or melt
His iron heart to pity On, still on
He presses, and forever. The proud bird.
The condor Of the Andos, that eau soar
Thro' heavens unfaihomabe depths, or brave
The fury of the northern hurricane
And bathe his plumago in the thunders home
furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down
To rest upon his smountaln-crag,--bu Time
Knows not the weight OF sleep or weariness,
And nights deep darkness has no chain to bind
His rushing pinons. Revolutions sweep
Der Earth, like troubled visions DER the breast
ofdreaming sorrow: cities rise and sink
Like bubbles on the water fiery isles &
Spring blazing from the ocean, and so back
To their mysterious caverns mountains rear
To heaven their bald and blackened clns and bow
heir tall heads to the plain new empires rise,
Gathering the strength OF hoary centuries,
And rush down like the Alpine avalanche
Startling the nations and the very stars,
Yon bright and burning blazonry Of God
Glitter awhile in their eternal depths,
And like the Pleiad, loveliest Of their train.
Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away
To darkle in the traekless void yet Time
Time, the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career,
Dark stern, all.pitiless, and pauscs not
Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path
To sit and muse like other conqncrors,
Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought.