Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/419

 394 CHANGE.

The mighty statesman from the senate sinketh, And eloquence in sackcloth mourns for him.

The lofty Czar who held his millions quaking, Who woke the nations with a warrior-tread,

On his camp-bed a pulseless sleep is taking, Pale as the serf that in his battles bled.

��Change sweeps o er all. In home s sweet orb it worketh ;

Clouds, silver-lined, grow dark with gushing rain ; But, prism d on tears, the bow of promise lurketh,

The Sun breaks forth, and all is bright again.

Up comes the cradling to his father s stature;

Down o er his staff the man of prowess bends ; Unpitying Winter strips the pomp from nature,

And snows o er beauty s lustrous locks descend.

To her first babe the joyous mother clingeth ;

Another weepeth in her rifled nest, And to the grave s cold casket, grudging, bringeth

The little diamond from her yearning breast.

But the redeemed soul hath no declension;

Tired sense may fail, the eye forget its fire ; The nerve be severed in its earthly tension,

The unchain d spirit soareth toward its Sire ;

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