The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-03-29
BEFORE THE CURFEw.
1S29-1SS2,

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
Not bed time yet The night winds blow,
The stars are out full well we know
The nurse is on the stair,
With ha nd of ice and cheek Of snow,
Aud frozen lips that whisper low.
" Come, children, it is time to go
My peaceful couch to share"
No years a wakeful heart can tire;
Not bedtime yet Come, stir the fire
And warm your dear old hands;
Kind mother earth we love so well
Has pleasant stories yet to tell
Before we hear the curfew bell;
Still glow the burning brands.
Not bed time yeti We long to know
What wonders time has yet to show,
What unborn years shall bring;
What ship the Arctic pole shall reach,
What lessons Science waits to teach,
What sermons there are left to preach,
What poems yet to sing.
What next? we ask; and is it true
The sunshine falls on nothing new;
As Isra Ia King declared?
Was ocean powed with harnessed hre
We're nations coupled with wire e?
Did Tarshish telegraph to Tyre?
How Hiram would have stared
And what if Shebas curious queen,
Who came to see-and to be SEEN
Or something new TO seek.
And swooned, as ladies sometimes do,
At sights that thrilled her through and through,
Had heard, as she was coming to,
A locomotive shrek,
And seen a rushing railway train
AS she looked out along the plain
From Dsvid's lofty tower
mile of smoke that bIots the sky
And blinds the eagles they fly
Behind the cars that thunder by
score of leagues an hour J
See to my rat luz respond
This little sumbering fire-tlpped wand
One touch-i. bursts q fame
Steal me portrait from the sun
One look-an6 lo the picture done
Are these old tricks, King Solomon,
We lying moderns claim
Could you have spectroscoped star
If both these mothers at your bar,
The cruel and the mild,
The young aud tender, old and tough,
Had said. d" Divide-you're right though oughH-
Did Judea know enough
To etherize the child 3?
These births of time our eyes have seen,
With but few brief years betseen;
What wonder if the text,
For other ages doubtless true
For coming years will never do
Whereof we all should like a few,
If but TO see what next.
If such things have been. such NAV be
VINO would not like to live and see
II Heaven may ordain-
What waits uudreamed of, yet in store,
The waves that roll foreyernore
On life's long beach may cast ashore
From out the mi.t-clad main
VIII earth to pagan dreams return
To find from misery's painted urn
That all save Hope has flown
OF Book and Church and Priest bereft;
The Rock of Ages vairly cleft,
Life's compass gone, its anchor left.
Left-lost-in depths unknown
Shall Faith the trodden path pursue
The ansata wearers knew
Who sleep with folded hands,
Where, like naked, lidless eye,
The staring Nile rolls wondering by
Those mountain slopes that climb the sky
Above the drifting sands2
Or shall nobler faith return,
lts fanes purer gospel learn.
With holier anthems ring,
nd teach that our transient creeds
Wee but the perishabe seeds
Of harvests sown for larger needs
The rlpenlng years shall bring
Well, let the present do its best
We trust our Maker for the rest
As on our way We plod:
Our souls, full dressed in feshly suits,
Love, Dir and sunshine, flowers and fruits.
Tn daisies better than their roots e
Beneath the grassy sod.
Not bedtime yet ! the full-blown tower
OF all the year-this evening hour
With friendships fame is brigb.
Life still is sweet, the heavens T,ra Pair
Though heids are brown APP. woods are bare,
And many JOY is left to share
Befo . We say Goodnight
AM when, our chs-.erful evening past,
nc ne. nu a b lo1S waiting, comes at last,
IN "earled}nature's sweet repose
nv Peace with all her waking foes,
&c Fps shall murmur, ere they close,
Goodnight and not Goodbye!
-dtlaut5c