The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-08-03
THE FLOOD OF YEARS.

Pours forth the never lending Flood Of Year.
Among the nations. How the rushing waves
And there alone, il Life; the Present there
Tosses and foams and nlls the air with roar
OF mingled noises. There are they who tell.
And they who strive. and they who feast. and they
Who hurry to and fro The sturdy hind
Woodman and deliver with the spade-are there,
And busy artisan beside his bench,
And pallid student with his written roll.
The Hood sweeps over them and they are gone.
There groups Of jewellers, whose bro~s are
twincd
With roses. ride the topmost swell awhile,
And as they raise their flowing caps to touch
The clinking brm to brim, are whrled beneath
The waves aud disappear. l hear the jar
OF beaten drums, and thunders that break forth
From cannon where the advancing bilow sends
That hurry to the charge through flame and smoke
The torrent bears them under. whelmed and hid,
Slayer and slain. in heaps of bloody foam.
Down go the steed and rider: the plumed chlef
Sinks With his followers: the head that wears
The imperial diadem goes down beside
The feon's with cropped ears and branded cheek
Bearers aud bier and mourners. BY the bed
OF one who dies men gather sorrowing,
And women weep aloud: the flood rolls on;
The vail is stified. and the sobbing group
Borne under. Hsrk to that shrill, sudden shout
The cry Of an applauding multitude
Swayed by some loud -tongued orator who yields
The living mass as If he were its soul.
The waters choke the shout and all is still.
Lo. next. kneeling crowd and one who spreads
The hands in the ssng"nns
The chi ell and the stricken marble grows
To beauty: ut his essel, eager-eyed,
A painter stands, and sunshine. ut his touch,
Ga hers upon the canvas, and life glOws;
A poet. a. he PAGES to and fro,
Murmurs his sounding lines Awhile they ride
The advancing billow. till its tossing crest
Strikes them and filings them under while their
Are yet unfinished. See mother smile
On her young babe that smiles to her again
The torrent wrests it from her arms; she shrieks
And weeps and midst her tears is carried down.
A beam like that of moonlight turns the spray
To slisteuing pearls: two lovers. hand in hand,
Rise on the biilo~y swell and fondly look
Into each others eyes. The rushing flood
Filings them apart; the youth goes down; the
maid.
With hands outstretched IN vain and streaming
eyes,
Waits ior the next high wave to follow him.
An aged man succeeds; his bending form
Sinks SLOWLY: mingling with the sullen stream
Clean the white locks and then are seen no moro
Lo. wider grows the stream; = se.-like food
Crumble before it; fortresses and towers
Dissolve in the swift waters; popalous realms
Swept by the torrent. their ancient tribes
Engulfed an lost. their very languages
ihed and never to be uttered m re.
Il pause and turn my eyes and. looking back,
Where that tumul uous hood has passed, seq
The silent Ocean of the Past a waste
OF waters welterng over graves, its shores
Strewn with the wreck OF fleets, where mast and
Frown idly. green with mosa. and temples stand
Inroofed. forsaken BY the worshiPers.
There lie memorial stones, whence time has
The craven legends, thrones of kings o'erturned,
Tn. broken affairs of forgotten gods,
Foundations of old cities and long streets
Where never fall OF human foot is heard
Upon the desolate pavement l behold
Dim glimmer.ngs Of lost jewels lar within
The sleeping waters, diamond, sardsnyx,
Ruby and topaz, pearl aud chrysote,
O.ce glittering at the banquet on fair brows
That long ago were dust; and all around,
Strown on the waters of that silent sea,
Are whitening bridal wreaths, and glossy locks
Shorn from lair brows by loving hands, and scrolls
Overwhelmingly with fond words of love
ths
A moment and then sink away from sight.
look; and the quick tears are in my eyes,
For behold in every one of these,
\ blighted hope. separate history
OF human sorrow. telling of dear ties
Suddenly broken. dreams of happiness
Dissol, ed in air. and h.ppy days, too brief,
That sorrowfuliy ended, and think
How painfully must the poor hearts have beat
Was struck that slew their hope or broke their
Sadly turn, and look before, where yet
The flood must pass. and behold mist
Where swarm dissolrlng forms, the brood Of
Hope.
Divinely fair, that rest on banks of flowers
Or wander among rainbows fading soon
And resppearing. haply giving place
To shapes OF grisly aspect, such a. Fear
Molds from the idle air; where serpents lift
The head to strike. and skeletons stretch forth
The bony arm in menace. Farther on
A belt OF darkness seems to bar the way,
Long. low and distant. where the Life that Is
Touches the Life to Come. The Flood of Years
Rolls toward it. near and nearer 1t must pass
That dismal barrier What il there beyond!
Hear what the wire and good have said Beyond
That belt of darkness still the years roll on
More gently, but with not less mighty sweep.
They gather up again and softly bear
All the sweet lives that late were overwhelmed
And lost to ght-all that in them good,
Noble and truly great and worthy of love
The lives Of infants and ingenious youths.
Sa-es and sanity women who have made
Their households happy all are raised and borne
By that great current in its onward sweep.
Wandering and ripping with caressing waves
Around green islands, fragrant with the breath
OF flowers that never wither. So they pass,
From stage to stage. along the shining course
OF that fair river broadening like sea.
As its smooth eddies curl along their way,
clasped
In joy unspeakable: the mothers arms
Again are folded round the child she loved
And lost. Old sorrows are forgotten now,
Or bat remembered to make sweet the hour
Int overpays them; wounded hearts tnat bled
Or broke are healed forever. In the room
OF this grief-shadOwed Present there shall be
Present in whose reign no grief shall gnaw
The heart and never shall a tender tie
Be broken-n whose reign the eternal Change
That waits on growth and action shall proceed
With everlasting Concord hand in hand.
William Cullen Bryant in Scribner's Monthly
for AuQust-