The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1900-12-30
THE CLOSING YEAR
lis midnight's holy hour. and silence


on the winds
The BELLS deep tones are swelling
tbs the knelI
OF the departed year. No funeral train
as sweeping past, ret on the stream
and wood.
With melancholy light. the moon
beams rest
Like q pale. spotless shroud: the air
/ is stirred
AS by mourner's sigh; and on yon
cloud
That floats so still and placidly through
| heaven
The spirits of the seasons seem TO
| stand
Young Spring. bright Summer. Au-
tumn's solemn form
And Winter with its aged locks-and
breathe
In mournful cadences that come
abroad
Like the fair wind-harp's wild and
touching wall.
A melancholy dirge DER the dead year,
Gone from the earth forever
Tis a time
the deep
Still chambers of the heart, a spectre
dim.
Whose tones are like the wizards
voice Of Time
Heard from the tomb Of ages, points
its cold
And solemn finger to the beautiful
And holy visions that have passed
away.
And left no shadow of their loneliness
On the dead waste Of life That spec
ire lifts
The cofin-lid of Hope and Joy and
Love,
And bending mournfully above the
pale.
Sweet forms that slumber there. seat
tiers dead flowers
Ger what has passed to nothingness.
The year
das gone, and with it many a glorious
throng
OF happy dreams. Its mark is on each |
brow.
Its shadow on each heart In its swift |
course
1t waved its sceptre DER the beautiful |
And they are not. II laid its pallid /
hand
Upon the strong man. and the naughty !
form
Is fallen. and the flashing eye is dim
1t trod the hall of revelry, where !
thronged
The bright and joyous, and the fearful |
wall
OF stricken ones is heard where crst |
the song
And reckless shout resounded
1t passed DER
The battle-plain where sword and |
spear and shield
Flashed in the light Of midday. and |
the strength
OF serried hosts is shivered, and the |
grass
Green from the soil of carnage. waves
above
The crushed and Wondering skeleton.
It came,
And faded like wreath of mist at |
eve;
Yet ere it melted in the viewless air |
It heralded its millions TO their home |
In the dim land of dreams.
Remorseless Time,
Fierce spirit of the glass and soythe. |
what power
Can stay him in his silent course, or
melt
His iron heart to pity? On, still on
He presses, and forever. The proud |
bird.
The condor of the Andes. that can
soar
heavens unfathomable
depths, or brave
The furry of che northern hurricane,
And battle his plumage in the thunder's
home.
Furls his broad wings at nightfall and
sinks down
To rest upon his mountain crag but
Time
Knows not the weight Of sleep or !,
WEAKNESS,
And nights deep darkn ass has no
chain to bind
His rushing pinions.
Revolutions sweep
Der earth like troubled visions DER |
the breast
OF dreaming sorrow: cities rise and
sink
Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles /
Spring blazing from the ocean, and |
go back
To their mysterious caverns: mount
aims rear
To heaven their bald and blackened
cliffs. and bow
Their tall heads to the plain; new en-
pires rise,
the strength of hoary CEN
turtles,
And rush down like the Alpine ava
lanche,
Startling the nations; and the very
stars.
Yon bright and burning blazonry of
God.
Glitter awhile in their eternal depths.
And. like the Pleads, loveliest OF
their train,
shoot from their glorious spheres and
pass away
To darkle in the traeKless void-yet
Time
Time the tomb-builder. holds his fierce
career,
Dark. stern. ail-pitiless. and pauses not
smid the mighty wrecks that strew
his nafh