Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/55

 TOEM. 47

��POEM.

BY REV. SILV ANNUS HAY WARD. [Delivered at the Quarter-Century Meeting of the Class of '53, Dartmouth College, June 26, 1878.]

Stay, Clotho, stay thy fervid wheel,

Let Lachesis cease twining ; — The quarter skein upon her reel

Our threads of life combining.

Threads tinged by Life's " dissolving views"

In shades of countless number; — Some decked with Joy's celestial dews,

Some smirched with sorrow's umber.

We come from out the dusty maze

Where weaponed warriors glisten, Into each other's eyes to gaze,

Each other's accents listen.

Nor absent those whom duties hold

To-day from our collection, Nor those whose dust 'neath grassy mold

Awaits the resurrection.

We feel the presence of our dead ;

There are no vacant places ; Though Atropos has cut their thread

We see their vanished faces.

For bonds which classmates here assume

Nor Time nor Death can sever : The shuttle flies in Friendship's loom

Forever and forever.

On Time's tempestuous, trackless sea A momentary meeting,
 * isn gliding to the far To Be,

k Hail and Farewell," our greeting.

avenly Pilot, do Thou guide To that fair port of entry Beyond this billowy, treacherous tide, Guarded by angel sentry.

Who next of our departing band,

The crown immortal winning, Shall pass within that vailed land?—

Clotho, resume thy spinning.

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