The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-08-17

To mock with shapes of dread the dtzed brain.
W1aiths of the living, specters of the dead
Behold they come, Il CHASTITY, gloomy train
y
o look not ON the vine when it is red
Lest forms of dread
Arise
From its red depths to blast and blight thine
eyes.
Look not the preacher said
Look not upon the wine when it is red"
o have seen in waters clear apd bright
The glorious upper world of bloom and light,
The nodding spires ofgress, the swaying trees,
And heavens azure tieeked with aigosies
II silver clouds; and all things true and fair
Were mirrored there;
And l have even
In deep dark wells beheld the light of heaven,
Bright in reflection rs the orbs that roll
In majesty above.
What saw | in the bowl?
Twas not the waving grasses, dewy bright,
The nodding trees, the clouds, the stars of
night.
No. Darker visions swept before my sight.
All. well the preacher said,
"Look not upon the wine when it is red"
As the magician sees before him pass
Demons OF uifkntS lllIFoftu III the SiHSS,
The shrouded, CHASTITY tenants of the grave,
And the dread underworld of mystery,
SO l. when gazing at the wine which gave
The crimson hue that dyes the sunset wave,
saw that which hath been, is, and yet shall be;
saw sights, would God l never more might
saw stars go out on earth 10 shine nc more
saw shattered wrecks upon n storm-beat
shore
saw ships go down before The iempest's
wrath
saw hopeless ruin in the whirlwind's path.
Brave hopes and high
Had persisted utterly.
Glory was quenched in shame. and low in
hate;
The fairest homes of earth were d~esolate.
oflove, OF hope, of happiness bereft.
All. what was left9
Edens, from which the bloom of life had he'd.
Gardens of roses growing thorns instead;
sad visions of the dying ana the dead,
Were pictured in the wine when it was red.
l saw a palace radiant and fair,
Its marble walls Delight with sculptures rare,
And, gathered in its halls, the youngand gay,
To speed in rcyelry the hours away.
"Pour ont the wine" the insiduous tempier
cried.
Twas the same ilend that halted by my side.
"Pour out the wine: each empticd glass nh up."
Ahthow it gives its color in the cup.
Each goblet flashed aloft its balefui red.
\ death-lit flame. With its ensanguined tide
The snowy marble OF the walls was dyed.
= in the glow OF CONGREGATIONS dire,
As in the lighto Of helrs i~ntensest fire.
The end was near; dreamlike the vision sped:
The palace Law in rnins DER lis dead.
This SAW l in the wine when it was rcd.
l saw a thousand homes made d~esolate
BY the red hand of murder. Pitilcss fate.
Binding his victims, CAV them unto death,
And life and beauty withered at a breath.
Alas for the despair
of stricken ones Alas the Young and fair,
Beauty with golden hair.
Childhood with dimpled face.
Youth with unconscious grace.
Faded life's morning bloom, its glory fled,
And mothers clasping in a long embrace
Within their pulseIcss arms their murdered
dead.
This saw 1 in the wine when it was red.
saw a million graves.
Earth mrrowed with them, As the sea with
waves:
Graves. not of those wha passed away in
pride,
But who, in abject misery, drank and died:
Graves OF the nameless, aforementioned dead;
The ~mindrops are the tears above them shed:
Heaven weeps forthem, human lids are dry.
Men shun the fields, uneonsecfate,
Where they forgotten lie;
or haply point a moral by their fA1e,
To warn the passer-hy,
To shnn the paths which they We're lured to
tread.
To look not on the wine when it is red,
l saw the small and great.
Before the Judgment scat
Waiting The verdict OF the last great day.
In fIr-of fields Of air,
Unelouded and serene,
The jasper walls Of holy Heaven were
seen.
White-robed and fair
The throngs OF the forgiven scared away,
And through the pearIy portals passed for
aye,
For aye forgiven.
But oh. Tor those the hapless slaves Of sin
That stood below unshriyen,
Waiting in vain the mandate: "Enter in
For everywhere,
Upon the gathering clouds. the darkening
air,
Was srit the turid sentence of despair;
"Nod rnnkard shall inherit Heaven,
And these the ouier darkness swallowed mp.
All. we'll the preacher said;
Look not upon the wine when II Is
red.
And when it gives color in the cup.~
And yet l looked upon the wine, alas.
1t was no horrid vision Of the night,
or picture Swallowed in the magic glass,
0fhgures moving to and fro,
Through scenes of deepening woe,
That pass and are not. Tor / felt the might
OF him, the hend who tempted lne to
drink
The hend who forged my letters. link by
link,
And bound me fill in after agony
lWrithed. and moaned, and struggled TO he
free.
Twas aware
of beings in the invisible air.