Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-08-01
-. .-TD u IT
Thanatopsls.
BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 4. d. 1872.

TO him who in the love of nature holds 80 I'D
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
a VarlOus"l language; Tor his gayer hours Z -
She has voice Of gladness, and a smile, >
And eloquence of beauty; and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mid
md gentle sympathy that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware
When thoughts
OF the last bitter hour come like blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images ''"s'ss 49,
VI the stern agony, and shroud, and pail,
Aud breatllcss darkness, and the narrow
hOusc, ~
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart
70 forth into the open sky, and list
TO Natures teaching, while, from all around
Comes still voice:
Ycta few days, and thee
The all.beholaing sun shall see no more
In all his course, nor yet in the cold ground.
Which, r fhv nal" form '"'~' '~;a --tA any
Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that horrished thee, shah
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again;
And, lost each human trace, surrcndering up
Thine individual being, thou shalt go
To mix forever with the elements
To be brother to the insensible rock,
And to the sluggish clod which the rude
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The
oak ? -. = - =,
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy
mold.
Yet MOTTO thy ctcriiai resting piacG,
Shalt thou retire alonc-nor could'st thou
=. WISH,
Couch more extravagant. Thou shalt lie
down : (" r.. - '-
With patriarchs of the infant world, 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 tic sun; the wales,
Stretching in pensive Quietness between;
The venerable woods; rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadow green; and poured
around ALL =. IT,
Old oceans gray and melancholy waste,
Are but the Spoken decorations all
OF the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the intite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages.
All that tread
The globe, are but handful, to the tribes
That slumbcr in it's bosom. Take the wings
Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce,
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound
Save it's own dashings-yct the dead are there
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The fight of years began. have laid them down
In their last sleep; the dead reign there alone
So shalt thou rest; and what if thou shalt fall
Unhoticed by the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Win share thy destiny. The; gay will laugh :
When thou art gone; the solemn brood OF
care
Plod on; and each one, as before, will chase
His favorite phantomi, yet, all these shall
leave
Their mirth, and their enjoyments, and shall
And make their bed with thee.
AS the long train
Of ages glide away, the sons of men,
The youth, in lifes green spring, and he who
goes
In the full strength of years, matron, and maid
The bowed with age, the infant, in the smiles
And beauty Of innocent age cut Off
Shall, one by one, be gathered to thy side,
By those who, in their turn, shall follow them
! So live, that when thy summons comes to- oin
She innumerable caravan that moves
TO the pale realms Of shade, where each shall
take :'' - -.
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou 60, not like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained anG
soothed
/ BY an nnaltering trust, approach thy grave
like one who wraps the drapery Of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams