220 A PLEDGE TO THE DYING YEAR. Ere sorrow had sullied the fountain below, Or darkness enveloped the form; Fill to that life-tide! oh warm was its rushing And yet like the wave in the wilderness gushing, "Twill gladden the wine-cup to-night. Fill to the past! from its dim distant sphere The strains of the by-gone, deep echoing here, We pledge to their shadowy tomb; And like the bright orb, that in sinking flings back One gleam o'er the cloud-covered dome, May the dreams of the past, on futurity track The hope of a holier home! PASSING AWAY-A DREAM. BY J. PIERPONT. WAS it the chime of a tiny bell, That came so sweet to my dreaming ear,Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell That he winds on the beach, so mellow and clear, When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, And the Moon and the Fairy are watching the deep, She dispensing her silvery light, And he, his notes as silvery quite, While the boatman listens and ships his oar, Are set to words:-as they float, they say, But no; it was not a fairy's shell, Blown on the beach, so mellow and clear; 222 PASSING AWAY. And she held to her bosom a budding bouquet, Passing away! passing away!", O, how bright were the wheels, that told Of the lapse of time as they moved round slow! And the hands, as they swept o'er the dial of gold, Seemed to point to the girl below. And lo! she had changed:-in a few short hours "Passing away! passing away!" PASSING AWAY. 223 While I gazed at that fair one's cheek, a shade And the light in her eye, and the light on the wheels, Was a little dimmed,-as when Evening steals 224 PASSING AWAY. The garland beneath her had fallen to dust; Grew crooked and tarnished, but on they kept, From the shrivelled lips of the toothless crone,(Let me never forget till my dying day The tone or the burden of her lay,-) "Passing away! passing away!" |