The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1882-05-14
THE FOLDED LEAF.
WRITTEN FOR THE EXAMINER.


The heavens tonight are full of stars,
A tender hush Is on the air;
You're softened by nights beauty
You lean back in your easy chair,
And breathe the starlight In your heart,
And draw the quiet in your mind;
The calm is sweet andyet aud yet
NOn look within and somehow find
You are not quite at peace. Old thoughts
And memories half awakened start,
And that night bird which sung iust thea,
1t touched a chord within your heart.
something else stirs in the air
And thrills you with vague unrest;
An, you re not alCne-beside you STANDS
An unioVed, yet an angel guest,
The angel, Conscience, and 1t saws
Look through life's book with me to night :;
You somehow cannot wave 1t of,
Within your heart 1t sets its light
And meath its searching rays you ope
Lies book with slow and hurtful pain;
The angel voice whispers Won
Lock through its pages once again.
You turn them over one by one
The first are wifi test, then You see
How near you were to heaven when
babe upon your mothers knee.
The next are wOndrously filed up
They thrill you through with eager Joy;
Well do their froic tracings show
The great, glad spirit of the boy!
You turn them DER with gentle hand.
THEY'RE dear to you as dear can he;
\ on laugh at this one, smile at taAt,
Then come To some You would not see.
The ghosts Of golden, wasted hours
From many pages speak to you;
They 7" not the c.eanest, Yet witha
You look them brayely Ger and through.
Your breath comes faster NJ you turn
You p'use, DER come with sudden griei-
You strike ! our hand upon the book
You've reached at last It's folded lrGt
! our lips are paIc-yOu turn aside,
You hear, all! yes understand,
The lustle"i some Wing which bears
memory from the dreamy land.
A truth comes with il clear as light
a truth you'vc read before In part-
You cannot quite reach Il Il and keep
That turned-dnwn leaf within your heart
A sin mlldews its every part,
And what Is this, u guilty grief?
You scarce would haye the world t. zee
The pictures on that folded leaf
Its mildew blackens every mage
Ot your iife's book, and Will ard must
Turn every flower You'd press within
To bitter, poisoned, Crumhling DUST
No angel artist pictured 1t,
l'ut dis used, unworthy thing;
No angel with approving smile
over that page could fold its wing
1t Is not blest, or else 1t would
Have periumcd lies book through an,
thrnuyh
An, Cod see but have no words
To tell what 1t has brought to you
AnNther's eye has read that paga.
Tho little know Tou how or when;
The poet subtitle, quickened sight
Il zen thing beyond his ken.
1t NAV he deepest sympathy
Which gives his soul diyIner sight;
Which brings the hearts and souls OF men
Before his own In clearer Light.
he reads man best who best knows how
The wave of mighty anguish wears,
Aru that firrc" agony which burns
Too deep. ali, tender God! for tears.
Y et there's no grief without its gain, y
No loss, tho past our mortal ken;
Through sorrow comes that b othcrhood
Ard larger mind which makes Us men.
NOn own no gain in loss tonight
As o eT the folded leaf YOU bend:
All. well, yoU Will not hear God through,
The voice of your angel friend
You tire Of stars and thought. You rise
. The book j. tir some, close il np,''
But ere you 70 IL takes your hands
And bids you love that leaf no more
Nor turn 10 lt-you pause, and look,
And kiss the leaf the gel sighs,
And softly closes up the book
Some day you Il tear it ont. condemned.
That page, unhallUw"d and nblest,
And God will lul within it, place
whittier one than all the rest
some day, with golden tracing pen
LnaiAtnei. undipped in sin or grief,
You II write sequel IN which God
y Ill Ii no sol,ed folded leaf
May, ls%2. An
Something new. If the ladies wish {,
see the lateStin dress goods they will fin,
1t to their interest to examine the ueV
arrivals just received at Sanger Bros.
05l4tc.