The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-07-15

Tingling the heart and brain
With that sweet music-touch that thrills
With subtle power, and warns laff
But to destroy!
The weary march,
And days Of toll, wherein the icy reach
Seemed ever TO retreat, or near advance
With dazzling promises of hope and rest;
And weary eyes, outpeering through
The Ice-Queen's veil of snow, ~
Would cen renew their brightness
At some distant shade by iceberg cast,
Which TO their dazzled vision formed
A shape of snow-clad hut, and hope
Thrilled through the chilled veins
or life, blest life, renewed anon, -s4itf..
And strength returned, by food and warmth
o majesty sublime Of Death! .,.
How shall we know the day or hour
That claimed our wand rers for thine oWng
Come, Vision. in the still, sad night,
And whisper to our comfort, thus:
The thought that last
sped from that frozen brain
Was prayer to Godi The pulse .s -
That last throbbed through
That noble heart was love for Thee!
No coward cry at Deaths approach
Fer trembled on the bearded lipr'
No sister there, or brother, brave,
And strong, and true: nor yet tA
A mothers last fond kiss, to thrill; alfi
Nor fathers trembling hand outstretched
To bless; no wife to 'sturb the calm
The awful calm-of death. by loud
And anguishcd cries of hopeless grief;
No swcet-faced girl to smooth pallid brow
Or, holding fast with Loves last hold
The hand which all too soon would boar
The rigid hue of death. anoint s
The palm with burning tears
Which shamed not Virtues womanhood-
Or, bending low. to claim
That last long kiss on Earth,
And whisper soft a trust in God
To turn the dying vision hence.
Alone they died!
Gods angels know
The thoughts which are denied
To us of earth. Methinks hear
As still they lie, some words like these ~
tAnd voice, though low in death, -tsg
Yet Deep TO touch each heart,
And waken the "Amenv' which lips
Now stiff were powerless to form:
BY pastures green, He causeth me to lie;
BY waters still, my weary steps are led;
And we will fear no I'll, for Thou
Art near. Yea! through the Vale
OF Death we trust Thee still,
For thou art God, and Thine the glory bel"
Renewed to life by these first thrilling tones,
Turned from that last death-sleep
To breathe In Inurmuring utterance
A prayer learned ut his mothers knee.
And so Death found them there,
And claimed his own. And life hfs
Fast fled. But on the noble brows
No terror staidI Proud they to dare,
= And prouder still to bravely die. d. g5s
A smile shows forth the steadfast heart
And, frozen there. for aye proclaims
The victory over Death!
s4 And now we mourn.
With hearts athrob and warm
In Natures sympathy, for each
And all who lose their loved fEt
in lands afar! Death 'mong the dear
Is bitter still--but death from home
And homes dear ties more pitiful.
And this the picture in our hearts for aye:
The lowering sky; the icy plain
Outreaching wide on every side, to meet
The leaden gray of sky, and, mingling, lose
Its very wilderness in the distant gloom;
The berg Of ice oft towering high,
Resplendent on its diamond throne, ,
And dazzling in its wondrous purity
Its base hid by the ermine drifts,
Its hight lost in the clouds
Low drifting down. And tween
The plains of frozen white,
And upper plains of leaden gray.
Pierced here aud there drazazzling peaks,
Wait slowly down the never-ending fakes
OF snow; and forms once struggling through
Areby the noiseless snowfiakes clad. ~
And now the sky is hid, and earth, sfi
And forms; andonly to the gaze
Remain that wicrd waste of snow
And LENA RIVERS frozen plain.
Chicago Tribune.