The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1891-09-02
The Grave by the Lake.

Laughs and ripples Melvin stream;
Melvin water, mountain born,
All fair 4 wers its banls adOrn;
All the woodland vOicea meet,
Mingling With its murmur< sweet.
Over lOwlands forest-grown,
Over waters island-strOwn,
Over silver-sanded beach,
Leaf-lOcked bay aud misty reach,
Melvin stream and rial-heap,
Watch aud ward the mountains keep.
Who that Titan eromlech ILLS?
Forest-kAiser, lord o. the hills2
Knight who on the birchen tree
Carved his savage hersldry2
Priest o. the pine-wOod temples dim,
Prophet, sage, or wizard grim2
Rugged type Of primal man,
Grim utilitaiiAn,
Loving woods for hunt and prowl,
Lake aud hill for fish aud fowl,
As the brown bear blind and dull
To the grand and beautiful.
Not for him the lessons drawn
From the mountains smit with dawn.
btar-rise, moOn-rise, flowers Of Nav.
Sunsets purple bloom OF day.
Took bis life no hue from thence,
Poor amid such afiluCnce2
HAPPY unto hill and tree
All too near akin was he:
Unto him who stands afar
Natures marvels greatest are
Who the mountain purple seeks
Must not climb the higher peaks.
Yet who knows in winter tramp,
Or the midnight Of the camp,
What reveAlings faint and far
Stealing down from moon and star,
Kindled in that human clod
Thought Of destiny aud God?
Stateliest forest patriarch,
Grand In robes OF skin and bark,
What sepulchrRl mysteries,
What weird funeral-rites we're his2
What sharp vail, what drear lament,
Back scared wolf and eagle sent2
Now, whate'er he may have been
Low he lies a. other men;
On his mound the partridge drums,
There the noisy blue-j4y comes;
Rank nor name nor pOmp has he
In the graves democracy.
Part thy blue lips, Northern lAkel
Moss-grOwn rocks, your silence break
Tell the tale, thou ancient tree :
Thou, too, slide-wOrn Ossipee
Speak, and tell us how and when
Lived and died this king Of menl
Wordless means the ancient pine;
Lake and mountain give no sign;
Vain TO trace this ring Of stones
Vain the search OF crumbling bOnee
Deepest Of all mysteries,
And the saddeat, silence is.
Nameless, noteless, clay with clay
Miugles slowly day by day;
But somewhere, for good or III,
That dark soul Is living still
Somewhere YET that atoms force
Moves the light-poisod universe.
Strange that on his burial sod
HArebrlls bloom and gOlden-rOd,
While the souls dark horoscope
Holds no starry sign Of hope
IL the Unseen with sight a. odds?
Natures pity more thaL GOd's2
Thus I unused by Melviu's side,
While the summer eyentide
Made the woods aud inland sea
And the mountains mystery;
And the hush Of earth and air
Seemed the pause before a prayer
Prayer for him, FOR all who rest,
Mother Earth, upon thy breast
Tapped on Christian turf, or hid
In rock-cave or pyramid:
All who sleep, zs all who live,
Well may need the prayer, Forgive.
Lusert-sm0thered caravan,
Knee-deep dust that once Was man,
BAttle-treEches ghAstly piled,
Ocean floors with white bones tiled,
Crowded tomb and mounded sod,
Dumbly crave that prayer 10 God.
o the generations old
0vor whom no Ochnrch-bells tolled,
Chrlstless, lifting mp blind eyes
To the silence OF the skies
For the innumerAble dead
Is my soul disquieted.
Where be now these silent hosts2
Where the camping ground Of ghosts7
Where the spectral cOnscripts led
To the white tents Of the dead2
What strange shore OF ehartless sea
Holds the awful mysery2
Then the warm sky stopped TO mako
Double sunset in the lake;
While above saw with Il,
Range on range, the mountains 1t;
And the calm and splendOr stole
Like an answer 10 my soul
Hearst thou, o Of little faith,
What 10 thee the mountain saith,
What is whispered by the trees p
"Cast on God thy care for these
Trust him IL thy sight be dim:
Doubt for them is doubt Of Him.
''Blind must be their close-shut eyes
Where like night the sunshine lies,
Fiery-linked the self-forged chain
Binding ever sin 10 pain,
Strong their prisOn-hOuse Of will,
But without he waiteth still.
''Not with hAtred's underiow
Doth the Love Eternal noW;
Every chain that spirits wear
Crumbles in the breath Of prayer;
Aud the penitent's desire
Opens every gate Of fire.
"Still thy love. o Christ arisen,
Yearns 10 reach these souls in prison
all depths OF sin and loss
Drops the plummet Of Thy cross
Never yet abyss was found
Deeper thar that cross could sound r.
Therefore well may Nature keep
Equal faith with all who sleep,
Set her watch OF hills around
Christian grave and heathen mound,
Aad 10 cairn aud kirkyard send
dowsry dividend.
Keep. o pleasant Melvin stream,
Thy sweet lAuEh in shade and gleaml
On the Indians grassy tomb
Swing, O flowers, your bells OF bloom
Deep below, as high above,
Sweeps the circle OF Gods love.
- Rhiftier
CoRHERsvILLE, Miss, Dec. 26, 1888
8 Medicine Co., Paris, Tenn;
ease send me three dozen OF your Grow
eless Chill Tonic. was pleased with
got from you last summer. The peO
delighted with IL. gave yOur chill tol