The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-09-19
For THE CECIL WING.
All THE, BRIDGES.
BY FOLGER McKINSEY.

Once more, old friends, while August sends
Adown the placid river
Its cleaning shafts of summer light
And lays aside it's culver
When autumn stands beside the door
And bowling, comes September
To pile the pumpkins on the floor
And stir the sleeping ember
We meet where once our infant feet
Trod joyously and gladly,
Where meier we thought that we would
Complacently and sadly,
To talk of days that in the past
Sweet by-gone have departed,
And DER our lives the shadow cast
OF something tender hearted.
Some holy, hallowed, gracious thing
A tie that bindeth brothers
Unto the ancient apron-string
Of sweet-faced, gray haired mothers.
We are here again, old friends, beyond
The city's noise and hustle,
To tighter draw the friendly bond
Where Birch and Hemlock rustic.
Oh, stalwart hearts! a toast of rhyme,
A song, health, mellow
'God bless us every one" through time,
And when our curls of yellow
Grow tiakey white as driven snow
And shrill our laundering voices,
Oh, God! lead us the gateway through
Where Lazarus rejoices!
Who says we are old? whose tears are
That flow? whose voice that falters?
Away with all thy silly woes,
Unloose thy spirits halters.
We've but begun those heights to climb
Where wealth and fame and glory
Await the hearts that grow sublime
When limbs grow weak, heads hoary.
All, little village, cradle, nurse
Of our glad lives! Oh, waters
That fill with song the poets verse
And cheer the soul that loiters
Amid the PUSHES on thy shores,
Among the groves and meadows
Where the romantic Oriole scars
Beneath the hill side shadows.
Once more we come to sing and laugh
Among the dear old places;
Once more health's crimson flush to graft
Upon our pallid faces.
All, soon, old friends, we'll drift apart
Upon life's wider ocean;
A Doctor one, and one to start
Some philosophic notion;
And one within the Banks white walls
Will ponder money-making,
and still the tender Goddess calls
Me where the fields need raking.
Yet, when the waters rush along
And seperate ways we're roaming,
The stream that bickers here in song
Shall greet the heroes coming
Back from the bloodless wars of life
Again upon the Bridges
To stand, beyond the toll and strife,
And watch the sunset DER the ridges.
Then, heartily Clasp hands, old friends,
While down the placid river
The month its last red arrow sends
And lays aside its culver.
Brave be our hearts! Oh, noble youths,
From nature up to Heaven
We, glancing, read the eternal truths
"Forgiving and forgiven"
l kiss thy brows. old friends, and go;
God bless you all! I'm weeping,
And shall, for gladness, till the snow
Upon my gave is sleeping
Peace to thy lives, health, wealth and love,
With gladness on you pressing,
And, mingled with the grace above,
The poets sweetest blessing.
Once more we'll meet, old friends, when time
Before the Ivory portals
Swings ope' the door of the sublime
Home of the cid immortals.
And still our hearts shall glow with all
The sunshine bending DER us,
AS here we stand, where sweetly fall
The murmuring streams before us.
And no farewells shall come to mar
The beauty of our greeting
Immortal and eternal are
The hours of that last meeting.