The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1883-07-04
The CLARION.
foR The CLARIOE.
UNKNOWN.

~ - ABDUL Il
1t has been long years since she prayed that
last prayer
With hands resting tenderly down on his
hair,
Her patient old eyes all blurred with the
tears -..-.........y ......
OF parting and misery, and underlined fears
OF what the future would bear in its arms
for her boy,
Whether darkness or sunlight, sorrow Of
Joy
Or whether she'd gaze ON his form one,
Ere in the dark grave by strange hands il
was lain.
And as the sun went to sleep in the crimson
ing west,
And the birds had ceased singing and flown
home TO the nest,
The cows lowing meekly as they came nj
the'lane ..- If
With the dog at their heels to drive faster
the train.
From the wide furrowed plains stretching
far to the west
Came the song of the field hands coming
to rest
The ringdoyes low cooling from the old gar
den wall
And the night slipping up and covering all
And when the watch stars trembled on
from on high,
And the young moon hung smiling, low
down in the sky;
He received mothers kiss, a close, tearfu
embrace,
One long lingering look in the old faded
face,
A last, sorrowful glaze from dear. faithful
That were seemingly lit by the lamps in thu
With a sobbed farewell and half-maddeneC
look
At the home he was leaving foreyer--h,
took
His way down the path and out at the bar
Leaving mother ut prayer, alone with tn,
stars
He saw her no more when one wear ha,
rolled
And the bells of the new had ceased TO b,
toled,
That tired old form was lain down to rest
In sluInber eternal upon the gray breast
or earth, while the birds and the flowers
Sang aud blossomed in beauty all thro thu
long hours. ..,ue 81. u.fs0.
And still wandering on in sad-hearted lot
Her boy in his recklessness knowing it not
oh mother the years have seemed long tc
your child .
Their tempests are merciless, their rayages
wild,
His heart has been scared By suspicion and
sc0rn, .8
And the manlier impulses of life that are
born, -. st...s sM 9w.tgel
Are crushed in their infancy the worlds
wilful tongue Y s8'
Las Numbered his doom, his n,iserre sung,
The only bow that now spans the black
N clouds above a.W,s#H..
is the memory of you, your faith and your
And oh il his prayers could call back the
mat are hidden enveloped way back in
Or the past, every hope on the earth
Every, cherished ambition that ever had
Wonld be given so eagerly just for one hour
Ot boyhood's peace and of childho6d,s
power, 20
He would kiss the damp grave. sod that
covers your head
If he could but snatch you away from the
dead,
Just long enough to hold him again to your
As you did in the days ere fate forced you
apart, F.., ..
Just once more to hear your voice speaking
low
As 1T spoke to his baby days, long long
ago;
o leel your soft hands caressing his hairg 4
Soothing his WEAKNESS, banishing care.
Forgetting earth's woes nyyour shelterine
arms,
4 child again, needless of lire's wild alarms,
but On, mother you're buried, too far and
too deep
beneath the twin willows that silently weep.
10 heas the heart cries OF your miserable
boy
who'd rather have You back than earth
And since that last night in the dim Years
agone
NO Ass, no affection has ever been born.
Into his life SO sunless and drear.
Into his life that still hns to wear
lhe vestments Of poverty, in her dark train.
Inc long days of waiting and passionate
pain, lt.s.. ,e ....,. -
NY - StreWh Wlth palld leaves drifting along,
~ Enhlems OF hopelessness, symbols of wrong,
Inc badge OF obscurty, proud though alone
Bearing the most fated of sticmas "tIn.
&s known N tu
wonder II man is ere unknown" to God
Ora stranger" in Heaven, ms we pass 'peatl
the rod
BY destiny held DER this desolate world
From which the black banner of dead hope,
unfurled,
Floats drearily out, we see but the gloom
winch shrouds the rough base of humani
tvs tomb.
Still He's wondering. whether, it in blest
regions fair,
liell not be stranger and an outcast N,
there
June 23d, 1883.
Southern Railways.