Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1885-05-30
O. SO. @s FROSTBURG, MD, MAY 80. 1885
ORIGINAL POETRY.
"ST. JOHNS ROCK.n
A Retrospect-Dedicated to it's
DISCOVERIES by the Author.

!
| DISCOVERIES by the Author.
What thundrous reverberations must have
| been
| When Natures giant forces piled these rocks
| so high,
My mind goes backward through the CEN
turies.
time was when this rock-encrusted mount
Lay like the level, grassy plain at Monterey
Lakes, mirror-faced and smooth, like dia-
monds, emerald-set
| Supplied by unseen streams from Nature $
fount,
| Sparkled in the sunlight as jewels rare
| Sparkle in the crowns the sovereign rulers
wear.
Light-limbed willows, dropping gracefully
With every gentle zephyr, bent to kiss
Their lovely shadows, which the clear, un-
selfish pool
Rcslstless, shadowed forth from its cool
depths.
On gently-sloping banks rank grasses waved
Bright green, DER strcwn with tiow'rs gold
red and blue,
From which most exquisite perfumes ex-
hailed.
In the dim distance gentle hillocks rose,
Making the horizon a wavy line
Like unto the ocean when the storm has
ceased.
Lovely Villas snowy-white and COOL
Nestle close to great strong palaces
AS though they knew what soon would come
to pass,
And asked protection from the high stone
walls.
And we'll they may, for hark a sullen rear,
As though the oceans o'er-leaping continents,
Had met and waged unprecedented war.
The sounds come nearer; people stand
aghast;
Even sucking babes cry out for fear
And strong men fall to earth with very dread.
All seems the same, except the breeze is stilled
And that the awful rumbling louder roars.
But 10 change! those low hills in the east
Are trembling, shaken by a mighty force
AT work within their bosoms.
And now the plains attacked, the lakes o'er-
flow,
The palace towers falling crush the trusting
villas;
The earthquake tosses mountains hills, rocks,
earth,
As a ploughman with an unruly team
Throws up the ground in crooked, shapeless
lands
The scene that but few short hours ago
Made up loveliness near lndescribable
Has disappeared, and that which
In the early years of earth
Formed all that then composed th' half-tin-
ished ball
Has ta'en its place.
The lakes, deep-buried in the mountains
Have rent asunder bonds of rock and earth
And bubblng forth in springs where glad
voiced rills
Go bounding down DER messy, rock-strewn
beds
To meet the silvery brook that flows below,
And thence, away, away, till
Mingling with the oceans liquid mounts
1t adds its whisper to the mighty roar.
Fen though bereft of that sweet loveliness
Which ever hangs DER quiet lakes
And tiower-strewn fields
Dotted here and there with swaying trees
Whose bright leaves futtering in the summer
breeze,
Playful turn an emerald green or glowing
silver;
Coquettish trifing with the suns bright rays
That, like the cords that bind true love to-
gether
Along whose never-parted strans
Sweet sleep, in dreams brings messages
From those we fain would never be sep
arate-
Conveys loves whisp'rings from his amours
lip to the Sun, the amorous god of day,
Who, as he marks his circle through the
sky,
Discovers and makes love to all the beautiful
ofearth.
From off this roughly builded monument,
Set by Nature DER the deep-dug grave
Of all the loveliness that lies buried here,
A scene as grand, sublime, majestic
AS eer was formed by mountain vale and
wood,
Unfolds its beauty to the wondering gaze.
The scene? A Spencer, master of the llmner's
art,
With all the glowing words our language
owns
At his command, would find it difficult
To picture it veraciously!
Then, as no Spencers have been born of late
To see this masterpiece of Natures art,
You, like |, must mount with careful step
That towering summit known as 'St. Johns
Rock"
And, clinging to the lonely blast-riven pine,
One look will recompense
The tolls and dangers thou hast undergone
That thou mightst stand on that ambitious
height. KARs.
Frostburg, Nd, May 16, 1885.
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