The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-12-22
LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS
AFTER.


ot yours with mine,
u, myself, have often babbled, doubtless, of a
foolish past;
B1bble, babble-our old England may go
Gown II bAbble at last.
Curse him, curse your victim-oall
him dotard in your rage;
Eyes that Iured doting boyhood well misht
fool dotard's age;
Tilted for Weather, wealthisr; yet per-
i haps she was nc wise,
/ remember no 4 You kissed the miniature
i with those sweet eyes.
In the hall there hangs painting, Amy's
arms about my neck,
Happy children in sunbeam sitting on th .
ribs ofwreck.
In my life there was a picture that
clasped my neck hal flown;
l was left within the shadow, sitting on the
wreck alone.
Yours has been a slightsr aiiment; will you
scken for her sakey
Your not you. your modern amourist is of
eas .er, earthisr make.
Amy loved me. Amy was timid child;
But your Judith, but your worldling she had
never driven me wild;
She that holds the diamond necklace dearer
than tho golden ring,
| She that finds winter sunset fairer than q
morn OF spring,
She that in her heart is brooding on his
| briefer lease Of life,
While she vows IT'LL Desth Shall Part" she
the would-bo widow wife;
She the worldling born Of wordlings father,
mother, be content;
Even the bomely farm can teach us thero is
| something IN descent.
Yonder In that chapel, slowly sinking now
into the ground,
Lies the warrior, my lore father, with his feet
upon the hound.
Crossed for once, he sailed the sea, to crush
| the Moslem In his pride;
| Dead the warrior, dead his glory, dead the
cause in which he died.
Yet how often and Amy in tho mouldering
aisle have stood,
| Gazing for one pensive moment on that
fo1nder Of our blood.
There again stood today and where Of old
we knelt in prayer,
| Close beneath the easement crimson, with
the shield of Lecksley there,
All il. white Italian marble. looking still as
if she smiled,
Lies my Amy. dead in childbirth, dead tho
mother, dead the child.
Dead, and sixty years ago; and dead her
aged husband now.
| /, this old, white headed dreamer, stopped
and kissed her murble brow.
Gone the fres of youth, the follies, furies,
curses, passionate tears,
Gone like fires and floods and earthquakes of
tho planets dawning years;
Fires that shook me once, but now to silent
ashes fallen away,
Cold upon the dead volcano sleeps the CLEAN
ofdying aay;
Gone the tyrant of my youth, and mute boz
low the chancel stones.
All his virtues i forgive them, black in
white above his bones
Gone thc comrades Of my bivouac. some in
Some through age and slow diseases gone, as
all on earth will 20.
Gone, with whom for forty years my life in
golden sequence ran,
She, with all the charm OF woman, she with
all tho breadth of man.
Strong in will, and rich in wisdom, Edith
Loyal, l0wly, sweet,
Feminine to her inmost heart, and feminine
to her tender feet;
Very woman OF very woman, nurse of ail.
ing bsdy and mind,
She atlinked again the broken chain that |
bound me TO my kind.
Here today was Amy with me while wan
dered down tho coast,
Near us Edith 5 holy shadow smiling at the |
slighter ghost.
Gone our sailor son, thy father Leonard,
early lost at sea,
Thou alone, my boy, Of Amy's kin and mine,
art left to mo.
Gone thy tender-nntured mother, wearying
to be LETT alone,
Pining for the stronger heart that once had
beat beside her own.
Truth-for truth is truth-he worshipt, being
trua MS he was brave;
Good-for good is good be followed, yet he
looked bsyond the grave.
Wiser there than you that. browning barren
Death as Lord of all.
Deem this oyer-traeic dramas closing eur
tain is the pail.
Beautiful was death in him who saw the
. death but kept the deck.
Saving women and their babes and sinking
with tho sinking wreck.
Gone forever-,ever2 mol For since our dy-
ing race began,
Ever, ever, and forever was the leading light
of man.
Those that in barbarian burials killed the
slave and slew the wife,
Felt within themselves the sacred passion Of
the second life.
indian warriors droam of ampler hunting
grounds beg ond The night;
Even the black Australian, dying, hopes he |
shall return awhile.
Truth for truth and good for eoodY Re
goodY The true, the pure, the Just :
Take the charm forever from them and they
crumble into dust;
lone the cry of Forward forwardl' lost
within growing gloom,
Iost, or only heard in silence from the ST. ,
lence Of tomb;
Ialf the marvels of my morning triumphs
over time and space,
tailed by frequence, shrunk by usage into |
commonest commonplace.
Forward II rang the voices then, and of the ,
many mine was ones;
'et us hush this cry of Forward" |" till ten
thousand years have gone.
ar among the ysnished races old Assyrian
Kings would fay
aptives whom they caught In battle, IRON
hearted victors they.
,ges after while in Asia, he that led the wild
Mcguls. @
lmur, built his sh'stly tower Of eighty
thousand human skulls.
hon and here in Edwards time, an age Of
noblest English names, N
hristian conquerors took and flung the
conquered Christian into flames.
Love your enemy, bless your haters. /" said
the Greatest OF the Great; | II
hristian love among the churches looked
the twin Of heathen hate. s.
rom the golden aims Of blessing man had
ceiusd himself curse; A
ONE Of Caesar, Rome OF Peter-whioh was a.
crueler, which was worst2 N
rance had shown a light 10 all men,
preached a gospel all men g good;
'luc Demos rose a demon, ahrieked and Is
stayed the light with blood. m
ope was ever on her mountain watching
till the day be1un, -
owned with sunlight over darkness from u
the still unrisen sun.
ave wo grown at last beyond tho passions a
Of ths primal clan
III your enemy. for you hate him? Still "
your enemy war man.
I'VE We sunk below thom2 Peasants main In
the holpless horse and drive
noe,ent ,e,alttls unter thatch and burn the W