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Like some great conqueror robed complete,
I walk in gold and crimson sheen,
Such wreaths resplendent on my feet,

As round immortal brows have been.

Were I a Pope-and who may know
What wonders changeful time shall bear-

What mortal but would kiss a toe,

Robed in a dress so wondrous fair!

1847.

19

VALEDICTORY.

WRITTEN FOR THE EXHIBITION OF HARRISBURG ACADEMY, JULY 20, 1847.*

"Farewell!" what tongue the full meaning can

tell,

That is hid in that haunted word-Farewell!

The boy, who hath gone from his father's side
To find how cold is the world and wide;
The lover, whom fate hath forced to fly,
With a kiss, an embrace, and a long good-bye;
The bride, who hath lingered, yet chosen to go
From her mother's home-for weal and for wo;
The exile, whose heart hath sighed its " adieu"
To his native hills o'er the waters blue-
Ah! these have FELT, what no tongue can tell,
The wo that is hid in that word-Farewell!

But not always thus as a parting knell; A note of joy is that word-Farewell.

* See Memoir, page 141.

Have ye never seen on what joyful wings,
From his long shut prison, the free bird springs?
Have ye never heard, from his heavenward flight,
How he poured to his prison a glad good-night?
The captive who weeps in his weary cell,
Will he sigh, when he says to that dungeon, Fare-
well?

Or the school-boy, whose cheek has grown pale in the toil

Of his lonely task o'er the midnight oil,

When vacation has come, with its sports and its

rest,

Will he part with his books with a sorrowful breast?

Oh ye from whose bosoms youth's freshness hath

parted,

Ye know not the joys of the young and light hearted!

When the blood flows the freest, the world is the

brightest,

The laugh rings the loudest, the footstep is lightest; When the spirit, untamed by experience of evil, Like a bee 'mongst the roses, lives only to revel; And the heart is away where the wild birds are singing,

Where the sunfish are glacing, and the flowers are springing;

When the soul on its path its own brightness is

casting,

Oh! then hath life something too sweet to be lasting.

Then, bound a captive to his books,
The school-boy from his window looks
On the sunny fields where the zephyrs play,
And longs to wander, free as they.

He sees the Old River go merrily by,
He hears the song of birds in the sky,
And while life is mounting through his veins,
He feels like a prisoner loaded with chains.
His lessons are dull, and the days glide slow,
And the weeks with a lazy motion go,

'Till the term runs out, and he shouts with glee"Vacation has come, and I am free!"

Vacation has come; and now, boys, will you sigh To say to your books, for a season, good-bye? Ye who with Cæsar have made the campaign, And fought his hard battles all over again, What say you to grant a short truce to his slaughters,

And let him spend August in winter quarters?

And ye who with Virgil so often have sighed,
Where Troy fed the flames or Creusa died;
Can ye spare good Æneas a season, to go
To the shades of his father and Dido below?

And ye soldiers of Cyrus, who saw his defeat, And with Xenophon's Ten Thousand made good your retreat,

Like the army you marched with, when safe from its foes,

You may lay down your arms, and on laurels

repose.

But the band that is struggling so far in the rear,
'Tis but a short truce that is granted you here;
The foe is before you, and many a fight,
Long marches by day, and long watches by night.

And ye, who with Livy have stood by the tide, That mirrored great Rome in her seven-hilled pride, And saw, as the ages went by in their flight,

How the world was absorbed in her over-grown might;

Like the earth, you may rest from her triumphs at

last,

For your toil, like the reign of her terror, is past.

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