Middletown transcript., 1876-12-16

l.
And rolled on its harmonious way
Into the boundless realms of space
So said the guests in speech and song,
As in the chimney burning bright
e We hung the Iron Crane tonight,
J, And merry was the feast apd long.
!, And now muse on what may be,
!, And in my vision see, or seem to see,
. Through floating vapors, interfused wi
8 light,
Shapes indeterminate that CLEAN and fade
As shadows passing into deeper shadows
, Sink and elude the sight.
For two alone there in the hall
Is spread the table round and small,
Upon the polished silver shine
The evening lamps, but more divine
The light of love shines over all;
Of love that says not mine and thine,
But ours, for ours is thine and mine,
They want no guests to come between
Their tender gances, like a screen,
And tell them tales of land and sea,
And whatsoever may betide
The great forgotten world outside,
They want no guests, they needs must be
Each others own best company.
III.
The picture fades, as at a village fair
A showman's views dissolve into the air,
To reappear trans6gured on the screen,
So in my fancy this and now once more
In part trans6gured, through the open dool
Appears the self-same scene.
Seated, see the two again,
But not alone they entertain
A little angel unaware,
With face as round as is the moon:
A royal guest with faxen hair
Who, throned upon his lofty chair,
Drums on the table with his spoon,
Then drops it careless upon the floor
To grasp at things unseen before.
Are these celestial manners?
These the ways that win, the arts that please |!
All, yes, consider we'll the guest
And whatsoe'er be does seems best;
He ruleth by the right divine
Of helplessness, so lately born
In purple chambers of the morn,
As sovereign over thee and thine,
He speaketh not, and yet there lies
A conversation in bis eyes;
The golden silence of the Greek,
The gravest wisdom of the wise,
Not spoken in language, but in looks
More legible than printed books,
AS if be could but would not speak.
And now, o monarch absolute,
Thy power is put to proof, for 10
Resstless, fathomless and slow
The nurse comes rustling like the sea,
And pushes back the chair and thee
And so goodnight to King Canute.
".
As one who walking in forest sees
A lovely landscape through the parted trees,
Then sees it not for boughs that intervene,
Or as we see the moon sometimes revealed
Through drifting clouds and then again con-
cealed,
So beheld the scene.
There are two guests at table now
The King, deposed and older grown
No longer occupies the throne
The crown is on his sisters brow,
A Princess from the fairy tales,
The very pattern girl of girls,
All covered and embowered in curls,
Rose-tinted from the Isle of Flowers,
And sailing with soft silkeu sails
From far oF Drsamland into ours,
Above there bowls with rims of blue
Four azure eyes of deeper hue
Are looking, dreamy with delight;
Limpid as planets that emerge
Above the oceans rounded verge,
Soft shining through the summer night.
oteadfast they gaze, yet nothing see
Beyond the horizon of their bowls
Nor care they for the world that rolls
With all its freight of troubled souls
nto the days that are to be-
v.
Again the tossing boughs shut out the scene
Again the drifting vapours intervene
Ind the moons pallid disk is hidden quite
Ind now see the table wider grown
ls round a pebble into water thrown
)ilates ring oflight.
see the table wider grown
see it garlanded with guests,
Is if fair Ariadnes' crown
Tut of the sky had fallen down;
laidens within whose tender breasts
thousand restless hopes and fears,
orth reaching to the coming years
lutter awhile, then quiet lie
ike timid birds that fain would fly
nd do not dare to leave there nests
md youths who in there strength elate
hallenge the van, and front Of fate,
ager as champions 10 be,
q the divine knight-erranty
f youth that travels sea and land
eeking adventures, or pursues
hrough cities or through solitudes
by the lyric muse,
be phantom with the beckoning hand
hat still allures and still eludes,
sweet illusions of the brain
sudden thrills Of fire and frost
be world is bright while ye remain
nd dark and dead when ye are lost
vi.
do |
nickens its current as it nears the mill,
nd SO the stream of time, that lingereth
level places, ard so dull appears,
ans with su litter current as it nears
he gloomy mills of Death
nd now like the magician's scroll
nat in the owners keeping shrinks,
ith every wish he speaks or thinks,
u the last wish consumes the whole, }
he table dwindles, and again
see the two alone remain.
le crown of stars is broken in parts;
; jewels, brighter than the day,
ave one by one been stolen away,
} shine in other homes and hearts.
ne is wanderer now afar a
Ceylon or Zanzibar,
; sunny regions of Cathay;
I'D one is in the boisterous camp, .
id -clink Of arms and horses tramp,
I'D battles terrible array.
zee the patient mother read,
ith aching teart, of wrecks that font
sabled on those seas remote,
of some great heroic deed
| battle-felds, where thousands bleed
lift one hero into fame,
lxious she bends her graceful head 4
'ove those chronicles Of pain, -
ID trembles with secret dread,
ST there among the drowned or slain
9 finds the one beloved name. n
VII.
Ter day of cloud and wind and rain
netimes the setting sun breaks out again,
d touching all the darksome woods with N
light
lies on the fields, until they laugh and sing
en- like ruby from the horizons ring fl
BPS down into the night.
lat see now the night is fair,
storm of grief, the clouds of care,
? wind, the rain have passed awav =.