Yet should one dare to question LOVE'S CHAIN. Oh, why should poets dream so sadly! Or why, misanthropes, rave so madly, Linked to the brightest hopes we cherish, From things of nature's first creation, And hearts that throb with powers untold; From world to luminous world extending, Dimly it skirts hell's dark dominions, TWILIGHT SHADOWS. Twilight shadows thick were flying, Sprites with bat-like.. wings distended, Winds, that all the day had rustled Mournfully the windows clattered, Coals upon the grate were glowing, One by one I saw them dying, So, thought I, if all we cherish, Thus, if every pure emotion Sink in passion's boundless ocean, How shall every holy feeling Melt in christian light, revealing Softly o'er my brow were playing Breezes, while a voice seemed saying Morning shall dispel thy sadness, So shall faith unbar hope's prison, Setting conscience free; Mind shall soar on buoyant pinions, A FABLE. "In olden time," tradition says, Beneath a palm tree's spreading shade, A dignitary filled the chair, With parchment, scrip and scribe, A worthy sage, with numerous eyes, "Most excellent sir, and worthies all,' The speaker thus began, "Our tyrants, ever since the fall That so perverted man, That threw all nature out of gear, Have tried their subtlest arts, To see how they could best ensnare Our flesh and blood too long have been A staple of their food, And now 'tis time that we begin To seek each other's good; To rescue from the iron heel Of tyranny our brothers, To make our vile oppressors feel That we are good as others. For this most holy cause we're met, In this secluded place, To take some measures requisite To guard our injured race. These ugly, sprawling monsters weave Their webs in every hole, Where they suspect or half believe A fly is like to crawl; Then in some corner lie in wait, Till one comes peeping in, When, oh! 'tis horrid to relate, The bloody monsters spin Their tangled webs around him fast, Regardless of his groans; Then with a fiendish grin at last, They pick his quivering bones. Arise ye patriots, break your chains, And say we will be free! A vict'ry shall reward our pains; To arms 'tis fate's decree!" The stamping of countless feet declar'd That willing hearts were found, While a wondrous buzzing fill'd the air Speaker. "They say they have a natural right (4 voice.) That justice, always yields to might: Speaker. "They say we're all such pilfering things, Because we dip our filthy wings," (A voice.) "In their molasses." Speaker. "They say the Fates did not design That they have organs more refined, They think us low and worthless curs, Brothers, my blood with anger stirs, Their boasts are all a pack of lies, Therefore, I offer, noble sirs, A list of resolutions, With which my heart in full concurs, "PREAMBLE. "Inasmuch as liberty is not an especial but common right, Not an inheritance, but a universal birth-right,— Neither a creature of chance, nor confer'd by fate Since from man to the beetle, and from the cricket to the mite, night, Are made of the same free elements increate. |