Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-11-29
AT TWO SCORE.
BY T. B. ALDR RIG II .

BY I. y. A l. II h IL ii.
The leafless branches snap with cold;
The night is still, the winds are laid;
And you are sitting, as OF Old,
Beside my hearth stone heavenly maid!
What would have CHANGED me all these years
AS man and boy. had you not come
And brOughtme gifts Of smiles and tears
From your Olympian home?
1.-The blacklist cloud that ever lowers"
You sang when was most forlorn,
elf we but watch some patient hours,
Takes silver edges from the morn"
Thanks for the lesson; thanks for ALL
Not only for ambrosia brought,
But for those drops which fell like gall
Into the cup of thought.
Dear Muse, it's twenty years or more
Since that enchanted, fairy time
When you came tapping at my door,
Your reticule stuffed full of rnyme.
What strange things have befallen, indeed,
Since then! Who has the time to say
What bards have lowered (and gone to seea)-
Immortal for a day!
We've seen pretense with cross and crown,
And folly caught in self-spun tolls;
Merit content to pass unknown,
And honor scorning public SpollS-
Seen Bottom WELD the critics pen
While Ariel sang in sun-llt cloud:
Sometimes we wept, and now and then
We could but laugh aloud.
And once we saw-ah, day of wool
The lurid fires of civil war,
The blue and gray frocks laid arrow,
And many name rise like star
To shine in Splendor evermore.
The fiery food swept hill and plain,
But clear above the battles roar
Rang slayery's falling chain.
With pilgrim staff and sandal-shoon,
One time we sought the Old-World shrlnes:
Saw Venice lying in the moon,
The Jungfrau and the Apenn1nes;
Beheld the Tiber rolling dark,
Rent temples, fanes, and gods austere;
In English meadows heard the lark
That charmed her Shakspeare'S ear.
What dreams and visions we have had;
What tempests we have weathered through !!
Been rich and poor, and gay and sad,
But never hOpeleSS-thankS to you.
A draught of water from the brook,
Or dH Hochheinaer-it was one;
Whatever fortune fell we took,
Children of shade and sun.
Though lacking gold, we never stopped
To pick it up in all our days;
Though lacking praise, we sometimes dropped,
We never asked q soul for praise.
The exquisite reward of song
Was song-the self-same thrill and glow
Which to unfolding flowers belong,
And WrenS and thruSheS know!
( tried you once-the day I wed;
Dear Muse, do you remember how
lou rose III ndSIe ala uSU,
With sudden knitted, scOrnful brow?
But you relented, smiled, at last
Returned, and, with your tears half dried,
g All WELL she can not take the Past,
Though she have all besidei"
What gilt-winged hopes have taken fight,
And dropped like Icarus, in mid-sky!
What cloudy days have turned to bright!
What sad sweet years have fitted by!
What lips we loved vain memory seeks!
What hand are cold that once pressed ours!
What lashes rest upon the cheeks
Beneath the SHOWS and flower!
We would not wish them back again;
The way is rude from here to there;
For us the short-lived JOY and pain;
For them the endless rest from care,
The crown, the palm, the deathless youth:
We would not wish them back-ah, no!
And as for us, dear Muse, in truth,
We've but half way to go.
-Hdrper's Magazine