The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1876-08-02
THE FLOOD OF YEARS.
BY WILLIAM cULLENT BRYANT.


A Mighty Hand. lrom an exhausiiess urn,
Poars lorth the never ending Flood OF Years
Among the nations. How the rushing waves
Bear all before them On their forenast edge,
And there alone, Is Life the Present there
TOsses and foams and hlls the air with roar
OF mingled noises. There are they who toll,
And they who strive, and they who feast, and the,
Who harry to and fro. The sturdy hind
/ Woojmen ard deliver with the spade-are there,
! And busy artisan beside his bench,
And rallid student with his Written roll,
A moment on themonnting billow seen
| The flood sweeps over them and they are gone
There groups OF revelers, whose brows are twines
W ith roses, ride the topmost swell awhile,
And as they rise their flowing cups to touch
The ciinking brim to brin, are whirled beneath
/ The waves and disappear. I hear the jar
or beaten drums, and thunders that break forth
From cannon. where the advancing billow sends
Up TO the sight long hles Of armed men,
| That hurry to the charge through fame AMI
/ smoke. sffatf
The torrent bears them under, whelmed and hid
Slayer and slain, In heaps OF bloody foam.
Down 20 the stecd and rider; the plamed chic
Sinks with his followers the head that wears
The imI crial diadem goes down beside
The felon's with cropped ear and branded cheek
4 funeral traIn--the torrent sweeps away
Bearers and bier and meurners. By the bed
OF one whod dies men gather sorrowing,
| And women weep aloud /; the food rolls on
4 The wall IS stifed, and the sobbing group
Born under. Hars to that shrill sudden shout
The cry of an applauiing multitude
Swayed by some loud-tongued orator who WELD:
The living mass, as If he were iis soul.
The waters choke the shout and all is still.
Lo, next, kneeling crowd and one who spreads
The hands in prayer; the ingulhng wave DER
takes
And swallows them and him. A sculptor WELD,
The ehisel, and the stricken marble grows
To beauty; at his easel, eagereyed,
A painter stands, and sunshine, at his .ouch,
Gathers upon the canvas, and life glows
A poet, as he PAGES to and fro,
Murmurs his sounding lines. Awhile they ride
The advancing bilow, till its tossing crest
Strikes them and filings them under while their
tasks
Are vet unfinished. See a mother smile
On her yourg babe who smiles on her again;
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 bIllowy swell and fondly look
Into each others eyes The rushing food
Filings them apart the youth goe- down; the
maid,
with hands outstre:ehed in vain and streaming
eyes,
Waits for the next high wave 70 follow him.
An aged man succeeds; his bending form
Sinks slowly mingled with the suIlen stream
CLEAN the white locks, and then are seen no more.
10, wilder grows the stream sea like fool
saps earth's walled citie, massive palaces
Crumble before Il fortresses and towers
Dissolve in the swim waters po2ulous realms
Swept by the torren; see their ancient tribes
Ingulfed and lost, their very languages
Stihed and never to be uttered more.
pause and turn my eyes, and, looking back,
Where the tumultuCus food has passed, I see
The silent Ocean of the Past, waste
or waters weltering over graves, its shores
Strewn with the wreck Of fleets where mast and
hull
Drop away pisoemeal battlemented walls
Fr0wn idly, green with moss and temples stand
Bproofed, forsaken by the worshipers.
There lie memorial stoaes, whence time has
snawed
The craven legends, thrones Of kings c'erinrnrd
The broken alters OF forgotten gods,
Foundations Of old cities and long street.
Where never fall of human foot IL heard
Upon the desols te pavement Ibehold
Dim glimmerir Of lost Jewels far within
II. u
Ruby and topaz, pearl and ehrysoIite,
Once gliitering at the banquet on fair br0ws
That long ago were dust and all around,
Slrewn on the waters Of that silent sea
Are withering bridal wreaths, and glossy locks
Shorn from fair brows by loving hands and scrolls
ervritten-haply with iOnd words Of love
And vows Of friendship-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
A blighted hope, a seperate history
or human sorrow, telling of dear ties
broken, dreams of happiness
Dissolved in air, and happy days, too brief,
That sorrowfuily ended, and think
How painfully must the poor heart have beat
In bcsoms without number, as the blow
Was struck that slew their hope or broke their
peace.
Sadly turn 1nd look before, where yet
The Floci must pass, and behold mist
Where swarm dissalylng forms, the braQd Of Hope.
Divinely fair, that rest on banks Of flowers
CIR wander among rainbows. fading soon
And reapPearing, haply giving place
To shapes Of gris'y aspect, such as Fear