The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-28
TRIBUTE TO DR..
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

|
OLIVER GOLDSMITH !
Sweet bard of Auburn; simplest of thy
school;
Whom nature taught to write by natures
rule,
Whose simple lines repeated DER and DER,
Discourse new music from their tune
full store;
Whose every verse bespeaks the generous
mind,
Believing in the good of human kind.
How often have ! paused to hear you tell
OF that dear preacher you describe SO
And though repeated oft, It's sweet to
There have been hearts where such ideals
glow
Ny heart responsive, lifts my thoughts on
high
To your tall cliff with summit in the sky;
Around its breast 1 see the gathering
storm,
My mental eye discerns its lower form
l feel with thee its head is bathed in
light
And that above the tempest all is bright.
What heart devoid of faith in human
kind,
Would let such figure steal upon the mind,
To parallel the height to which tbs given
For those to rise, whose thoughts have
rest in heaven.
With thee I've stood beside some humble
bed
| And listened to the words your good man
said
Unto the parting soul which quaked with
fear
Until thy reverend champion gathered
near.
Such are thy charms that thou canst
make us see
And know, and love thy character with
thee.
What man instructed at a country school
But knows \thy village master skilled
to rule"
Sees him with pompous men approach
the crew
That tremble in their boots his face to
view
Historically laugh when on his face
The semblance of a smile their fancies
trace
Recalls with doubt and certainty COM
bined
| The vast achievements of his single mind.
Knows that the Justice of the Peace ex-
His Judgment was by all the world re-
spected.
I hear him call the class in algebra"
| heard him cali it once and rued the day
When he the value queried of the *"
When "X'' square minus 'X9 did equal
six
Sight reading, though, in Latin was his
whim
Who hesitated least stood best with him;
Another will, no doubt, recall the day
When on the board was spread for an
essay
per totam noctem CAMS vigilat,
Will incognitus please translate us"
that?
He, bold for favor, but with quaking soul,
Translated: Dogs watch darkness
through a hole"
Sweet Bard of Auburn; hadst thou but
Thou wouldst not doubt the homage 1
pay here,
To thee, and thine, and all the village
train
Thou hast depicted in thy sweet refrain.
His love, of learning was your school
mans fault,
With love of learning was my school-man
fraught,
And had l not the faith which thou hast
| shown,
1 would not pay such tribute to mine own.
He's without heroes, whose contracted
! mind
Denies the power and virtue in mankind,
That man whose heart conceives no high
| ideal,
Meier harbored faith in heroes 'mongst
| the real;
His sluggish mind, unequal to the flight,
Denies that others can attain such height.
rd fhnf1 q cfn n
art
Thy love of nature doth thy charm Inn
| part,
Thou art past master in the power to
| trace
A shifting scene, with Unaffected grace;
| The painter can with mimic brush portray
| The rising sun, the rosy birth of day,
Lift from the vale the cloudy mists of
| night,
And midway place them on the mountains
| height;
There in it's fostering shade to skulk and
| hide,
Till by the rising sun they are espied,
But here the painters brush attains its
| height.
That mist will never vanish from the
sight;
Fixed on the eye, his brush has done it's
| best,
No magic power to change at his behest
Thou, sweet magician, with poetic power,
Dost change the scene to suit the varying
hour:
Join in the chase pursue the mists on
high
Until they vanish from the musing eye;
The smiling landscape with thy touch I'M
| fold.
And DER it spread a filmy cloth of gold
| Rouse slumb'ring nature from her drowsy
sleep
The rising sun. the jocund morn to greet;
Awake the laughing waters of the run,
And make them dance and sparkle in the
sun;
Or, when it suits thee, choke its weedy
way,
And hide its waters from the light of day.
Familiar sounds of village life we hear,
| Thou mak'st them echo on the listening
| ear;
The Cabling geese, the milkmaid's CHEEKY
| song,
The lowing herd respond to their young;
The eve and ear thou dost at once beguile,
Appealing to our very hearts, the while.
Such are the pleasures that thy lines i'm
| part
These are thy charms without a feint at
art;
Simplicity pervades thy sweetest lay,
un.-suG