The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-12-26

| In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears
Nor yet in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth that nOurished thee, shall claim
Thy growth. 10 be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou 60
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock,
And to the sluggish Clod, which the rude swain.
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad aud pierce Thy mould
Yet not to thine eternal resting place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor cOud'st thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With the patrarChs of the infant wOrd-with kings
The powerful OF the earth-the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hOary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
ROCk-ribbed and ancient as the SUM- the wales,
Stretching in pensive quietness betNeeu;
The venerable woods; rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadow greeE;dnd poured round ALL
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste
Are but the solemn decorations all
OF the great tomb OF man. The golden sum-
The planets, all the infinite hosts Cf heaven,
Are shining on the sad a5Ode5 Of death,
Through the sill lapse Of ages"
We may also notice a single stanza from
aTHE YELLOW VIOLET"
'Erc russet fields their green resume,
Sweet flower, 1 love, il forest bare,
To meet thee, when thy faint perfume
Alone is in the virgin air.
We cannot omit the opening lines Of the
"ISsCR1PTIoN FOR THE ENTRANCE TO wooD.r
stranger, if thou hast learned truth which needs
No school of long experience, that the world
Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen
Enough of all its sOrrOWs crimes and cares,
To tire thee of il, enter this wild wood
And view the haunts Of Nature
That familiar poem, Lines to Water
Fowl" Is worthy Of note in this connection,
but it is so familiar that / shall not
reproduce it here. But there is another
poem which is well worthy Of perusal, and
is by no means too well known. 1t Is called
"THE RIvULET."
"This little rill, that from the springs
OF fyOnder grove its current brings,
Plays on the slope awhile, ard then
Goes prattiug iutO groves again,
Oft to its waTbiug waters drew
My little feet, when life was new.
When woods in early green were dressed
And from the chambers Of the west,
The warmer breezss, travelling out,
Breathed the new scent of flowers about,
8 Ny truaut steps feom home sro1id stray
Upon its grassy side to play,
List the brown thraSher's yernal hymn,
And crop the violet on its brim,
With blooming cheek and open brow,
As young and gay, sweet rillr as thou
"And when the days Of boyhoOd came,
And had grown in love with fame,
Daily sought thy banks, and tried
NV first rude numbers by thy side.
Words cannot tell how bright and gay
The scenes OF life before NE lay.
Then glorious hopes, that now TO speak,
Would bring the blood into my check
Passed DER me; and I wrote ON high,
A name, / deemed should never die.
''Thou chaugest not-but 1 am changed
Since first thy pleasant banks ranged
Aud the grave stranger, come to see
The play-plsCe Of his infancy,
Has scarce @ single trace of him
That spCrted then upon thy brim.
The visions Of my youth are past
Too bright, 200 beautiful, to last.
rve tried the wOrld-it wears no more
The cOlOring of romance II wore.
Yet well has Nature kept the truth
She promised in my earliest youth.
The radiant beauty shed abroad
On all the glorious works Of God,
Shows freshly, to my sObered eye,
Each charm it wore in days gone by;
"Aud / shall sleep and on thy side,
As ages after ages glide,
Children their early sports shall try,
And pass to hOary age ana die.
Bat thou, unchanged from year to year,
Gayly shalt play and glitter here;
Amid young flowers and tender grass,
Thy endless infancy shall pass;
And, singing down thy narrow glen,
shall meek the finding race of men.
This rivulet was no myth. No doubt the
poet records a fact in:
"Oft to its warbling waters drew
My little feet when life WAS new
for the rivulet may still be seen on the old
homestead at CummiDgton.
In "a Forest Hymn" opening thus:
"Tbo groves were Gods first temples. Ere man
learned
To new the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them-ere he frame
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; iu the darklirg wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, be knelt down,
Aud offered to the Mightiesi, solemn thanks
we have a beautiful sketch from Nature,
and another in "Lines on Revisiting the
Country" in which, in speaking Of his
the poet says:
"a Iispir,g voice and glancing eyes are near,
And ever restless feet of one, who now
Gathers the blossoms OF her fourth bright year;
There plays a gladness DER her fair young brow,
As breaks the varied scene upon Ler sight,
Upheayed and spread in verduTe and in light.
"For have taught her, with delighted eye,
To gaze upon the mUuntains-tO behold,
With deep affection, the pure, ample sky,
And clouds along its blue abysses rolled
To love the song Of waters, and to hear
The melody OF WiTds with charmed ear" !
''The Death Of the Flowers" is another
familiar piece, which should lie noted here, |
but l will close this list with the
LINES TO A FRINeED GEETIAN"
"ThOu blossom, bright with autumn dew,
And COIOred with The heaven g own Dlueg
That Opeuest when the quiet light
Succeeds the Keen aud frosty night.
"ThOu Comest not when yiOlets lean
O'Gr wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines in purple dressed,
Nod DER the grOund-bird'S hidden nest.
'rThou waitest late and com ST alone,
When woods are bare and birds ure down,
And fr0sts and shortening days pOrtcDd
The aged year is near his end.
'Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its friugcs to the sky,
Blue-bluC-as if that sky let fall
a flower from its CcrulCan wall
81 would that thus, when shall see,
The huur of death draw nigh 10 me,
Hop, blussOmiug within my heart,
May look to heaven as depart"
Of course I cannot copy all that would
be interesting. You must go to the book
to find that; but I have hastily sketched a
few lines, to give you foretaste of the
feast.
Bryant was noted for his poetical genius
before he was ten years Of age, and it was
about this time that his verses began to
ind their way into print
lie was carefully trained by his father,
Who was a learned man, and who a.SO en-
,ouragcd his son in his literary pursuits.
OF the physical lie Of the poet, have a
word to say. He came Of long-lived stock,
lut his father died Of consumption at the
lge Of ffty-two, and it was thought that a
endency to pulmonary disease was by him
transmitted to his children, for his gifted
laughter also fell prey to this fell de-
trOyer, so prevalent in the New England
States and the subject Of our sketch him
elf suffered much from this disease in his
.arIv manhood, insomuch that his friends
raro fnorfuI that his days Wero numbered I
How does it happen then, that we find
lin living to a green old age? Merely be
.ause Of his care for his health He
ived according to hygienic principles; that
S, ne studied the laws OF health, and so
iycd as to car them out, A. to diet,