Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-28
POLARIS.
BY HON. WILLIAM pINKNEy JACK,

Stars govern men, and spirits return to
 their stars.-Plato. Nightly view thy lone and placid face,
 o, thou benignant and eternal star. Poised far away, in the abyss of space,
 Thy guiding light is followed everywhere. The faithful shepherd in his watch al night, As he tends his flock on the distant plain, Never doubting, trusts thy true and cheery Then at morn leads them on to browse The nomad wandering on his desirous way, Der trackless waste, or mountains snowy
 crest,
 Halls with stern joy thy welcome, smiling That lights with hope his gaunt, savage Unresting sailors on the foaming deep, Of wide, billowy seas, from shore to shore Their true and never failing courses keep, By thy light; so shalt thou shine on ever Science builds her eyrie on thy lofty brow, Thence bears her treasured love to every Nor through duration's endless course, or Countless ages pass, still thou art the same, Ever shining with thy soft and beaming In one place, if the worlds strange won-
 derous frame
 Shows the gorgeous day, or the sable Heavens bright, myriad hosts all change.
 but thee,
 Oft, rise and set and wave their golden
 light;
 Fixed in space, thou shinest eternally.
 A guiding star that keeps the world In your refulgent, starry dome above,
 Unmoved thy steadfast face shall ever be, Ursa Keeps watch eternal around thy Ever circiing, as she looks and points to
 thee
 love thee. O, thou true unchanging star trlends deceive us, grow cold and fall In despairing tones we ask where are they? Thou smtlest the same with thy placid ray,
 joy
 We watched thee oft, when life was in it's
 spring,
 When but young, a rude and thoughtless
 boy, Careless Careless in life and wayward in every In manhood. thy mystic beams cherished me still,
 Watched thee with one, whose life was life Whose sweet voice. like a seraph's tone did My rapt soul, with thy celestial melody; Whose eye the way seemed through
 Heavens pearly gate,
 Whose loving light, bound my adoring As thou, o, constant star the hosts that
 wait
 On thy stable throne and round it ever Immortal as thy ray, our stricken love Thou bearest me back to Elysian days And forward to her blissful state above. Enrapturing tears suffuse my gazing eye, Hope mounts aloft, nor folds her wing at
 sorrows sigh.
 And tell me. will you, o, thou friendly Does her freed spirit roam thy realm of Do thy glad beams that come to me so far. KISS her brow, as thee watch tonight? Does she deem her other life is coming, Where healing waters bathe thy distant Down the dusky night these words me-
 seeming
 And sound so sweet was never heard be- In this star loving spirits meet to part
 no more.
 Russellville, Ala. Nov p, 1889.
 The above poem was written by the late William Pinkney Jack, who was for many Years an honored representative from Franklin county in the Alabama legislature, and many of the oldest in habitants of the state will readily recog- nize the genius of the tall and stately figure that is no more. Polaris is the euphonius and poetic name for pole-star. It is based upon the beautiful, but er- roneous idea prevalent among the an- clents before the day star of revelation flooded the world with light, elegantly expressed by Plato in the following Ian guage: Stars govern men and spirits return to their stars" Polaris is, there fore made to represent the far off star home of the spirit of the dark-eyed bride SA NhS POce SoueA, WHICH ne seems 10 have nightly watched and like a night ingale at twilight's holy hour, poured forth his soul in music and melody. Dur ing Colonel Jacks lifetime the poem was never published, but the writer of this note of explanation heard him read it once and tears came to his eyes-and that, too not long before his spirit van ished amid the starry dome above Long after the face that had smiled upon him had vanished the heart that had sloved him still in death, the true and tender affection of the husband for the wife lived on. How rare, how rich how pure, how radiant is such love.