New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-11-18

II. L.
No fanes by halowfng time careSseo'
No broken arch that ministers
To some sad instinct in the breast:
She has not gathered from the years
Grandeur Of tragedies and tears
Nor from long leisure the unrest
That fluids rep sc in forms OF clhsslc grace
These may delight the coming race
Who haply shall not count IL TO our crime - 49,, ,t,,e
hat Ne who fain would sing here before our the'
She also hath her monuments; 49,,
Not such ; stand decrepitly resigned
To ruin-nark the path of dead events,
That left seed Of better days behind,
Tic tourists pensioners that show their scars
Aud maunder OF forgotten wars .,,o mind
She builds not on the ground out III 'he i1in"'
For Observation-Disclosures men with heaven and earth at ease
Her march the plump marks. the seepieSs WHICH,
The golden sheaf, the self-swayed commonweM;
Whose sacriheial smokes through peaeeinl hr
Rise lost in heaven, the usehoids silent prayer
What architect hath Bothered these
With s0ftened eye the westward traveller secs
A thousand miles of peish'ols side by sl9e'
Holding by to-won titles fresh from Goa
The lands no serf or seigneur ever trod,
With manhood latent in the very sou, -,
Where the long DillOw of the wheat helos uae
Flows 20 the say across the Irallle Wide'
swccier vision than the cast!ed Khlne,
Kindly with thoughts OF Ruth and Bible-days beDish'
The poet then turns to the ancient common
wealths which We are apt to Ovcr-revere because
they lie so far behind US and finds greater achieve
nent in the fact that our Nation means home to
her children. He says:
Yet may she claim one privilege nroanc,
And happy first upon the civic roll, a.
A very rich, full-voiced strOphe upon the ancient
eulture. the glory of Art and knowledge, as 1t
masses westward through the ages to the day when
we await il on these shores, then follows. But
voices of doubt reproach OF evil auguTy arc heard
and these are sternly pondered. The purely poetic
element is repressed by themes which have been SO
plentifully treated of late in prose; but 1T breaks
forth again in this strain of genteT and tenderer
music:
Back 10 my breast, Engrateful sigh!
Whoever fails, whoever cIFs,
The present stiIl seems vulgar, seen too nigh;
Tho golden age IL stili the age thats past'
ask no drOwsy opiatc
To duh my vision of that only state 49,.
Founded on faith in and therefore sure to last.
The gray hairs gather back their gold;
Thy thought sets all nay pulses free;
The heart refuses TO be old;
The love Il all that can see.
Not to thy nata-day belong
But gifts of gratitude and sOng
Unsu,n1aOned crowd the thankful words
AS sap in Spring time foods the tree,
Forebodinc the return OF birds,
For all that thou hast been 20 me
The closing strophe, otherwise so pure in form and
feeling, seems to ms marred by the two illusions TO
the suspected unfaith of Science. They suggest
argument or at least theories which provoke argu-
meut where the lofty invocation should have been
forgetful of all save It's faith:
God OF our fathers, Thou who vast,
Art and shalt be when the eye wise VINO hont
Thy secret presence shall be lost
In the great light that daZzles them 10 doubt,
We sprung from lOins OF st3lwart men
Whose strength in their trnst
That Thou woud's make Thy dwelling IN thor aust
And walk with them felow-citlZen
Who build city OF tho just,
We who believe Lies bases rest
Beyond the probe Of chemie test
still like fathers, feel Thee near,
Sure that while lasts the itnlnutaete decree,
The land 10 Human Nature dear
Shall not be unbcOVcd OF Thee.