Middletown transcript., 1876-12-30
THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.
BY GEORGE D. PRENTICE.

|
Gone forever Like rushing wavel
, Another year has burst upon the shore
Of earthly being-and its last low tones,
Wandering in broken accents on the air,
Are dying to an echo.
The gay Spring
With its young charms is gone-gone will
its leaves
Its atmosphere of roses-its white clouds
Slumbering like seraphs in the air-its birds
Telling their loves in musc-and its streams
Leaping and shouting from the up-pled rocks
To make earth echo with the joy of waves.
And Summer, with its dews and showers has
gone
Its rainbows glowing on the distant cloud
Like spirits of the storm-its peaceful lakes,
Smiling in their sweet sleep, as if their dreams
Were of the opening flowers and budding trees
And overhanging sky-and its bright mists
Resting upon the mountain tops, as crowns
Upon the heads of giants. Autumn, too,
Has gone with all its deeper glories-gone
With its rich green hills, like altars of the
| world,
Lifting their rich fruit offerings to their God
Its cool winds straying mid the forest aisles
| To wake their thousand wind harps-its serene
And holy sunsets hanging o'er the West
Like banners from the baftlements of heaven
And its still evenings, when the moonlit sea
Was ever throbbing, like the living heart
Of the great Universe. Aye-these are now
But signs and visions of the past-their deep,
Wild beauty has departed from the Earth,
And they are gathered to the embrace of Death,
Their solemn herald to Eternity,
Nor have they gone alone. High human
hearts
OF passion have gone with them. The fresh
dust
Is chill on many breast that burned erewhile
With fires that seem immortal. Joys that |
leaped
Like angels from the heart and wandered free |
In llfe,s young morning to look upon the
The poetry of Nature, and to list 4
The woven sound of breeze and bird and |
Upon the night air, have been stricken down
ln silence to the dust. Exultant Hope,
That moved on the forever buoyant winds
Like the bright, starry bird of Paradise
And chaunted to the ever-listening heart
In the wild music of thousand tongues;
Or roared into the open sky, until
Nights burning gems seemed jewelled on her
brow,
Has shut her dropping wing, and made her
home
Within the voiceless sepulchre. And Love,
That knelt at PASSIONS holies. shrine, and
gazed
)n his hearts idol as on some sweet star,
And dreamed of ecstacies until his soul
seemed but a Tyre, that awakened in the glance
)f the beloved one-he who madly gasped
# Glory's feeting phantom-he who sought
lis fame upon The battlefield, and longed
70 make his throne pyramid of bones
Amid a sea of blood-he, too, is gone!
lis stormy voice is mute-his mighty arm ,
8 nerveless on its clod-his very name
but the meteor of a night of years
hose CLEANS flashed out moment o'er the
Earth
Ind faded into nothingness. The dream
y high devotion -beauty's bright array
md llfe's deep idol memories-all have passed r
ike The cloud-shadows on astarlight stream t
lr soft strain of music, when the winds
ire slumbering on the billow =,
Yet why muse N
pom the past with sorrow? Though the year y
as gone TO blend with the mysterious tide e
T old Eternity, and borne along
pon its heaving breast thousand wrecks
I glory and OF beauty-yet why mourn
hat such is destiny? Another year q
ncceedeth to the past-n their bright round
Ee seasons come and go-the same blue arch :.
hat has hung Ger us will hang DER US yet
NJ SouAc ciu0 ctoio tHht we nave IOVeQ 10
watch
ill blossom still at twilight's gentle hour,
ike lilies on the tomb of Day-and still
an will remain to dream as he hath dreamed,
nd mark the Earth with passion Love will Ia
'om the loved tomb of old Affectons-Hope v
nd Joy and great Ambition will rise up
5 they have risen-and their deeds will be
lighter than those engraven on the scroll r.
parted centuries. Even now the sea ="
coming years, beneath whose mighty m
waves
fe's great events are heaving into birth,
tossing to and fro, as if the winds dt
Heaven were prisened in its soundless "
depths, .,
I'd struggling to be free. =.
Weep not that Time u
passing OMIT will ere long reveal
brighter era to the nations Hark
ong the wales and mountains of the Earth oo
ere is deep portentous murmuring, e
ke the swift rush of fsubterranean streams; DC
like the mingled sounds of earth and air pa
hen the fierce Tempest, with sonorous wing,
aves bis deep folds upon the rushing winds, an
d hurries onward with his night Of clouds y"
ainst the eternal mountains. IT'S the voice MI
infant FREEDoM-and her stirring call
heard aud answered in thousand tones II
I'm every hilltop of our western home ~
G 10 it breaks across old Oceans flood -
d FREEDOM FREEDOM !' is the answer
ing shout ert
nations starting from the spell of years. ha
day-spring !-see it's Frightening in the lor
heavens! ia'
} watchmen of the night have caught the
the sign no
m tower to tower the signal fires flash free hes
! the deep watch-word, like the rush of seas
t heralds the velcano's bursting flame,
ounding Ger the earth. Bright years of gal
Hope bal
! freedom on the wingl-Yon glorious bow ful
Freedom bended by the hand of God, A..
Times dark surges! Its high arch, ",
ype of Love and Mercy, on the cloud dol
that the many storms of human life
pass in silence, and the sinking waves,
herring the forms Of glory and of peace,
ect the undimmed brightness of the
Heavens.