The Project Gutenberg EBook of Songs from the Southland, by Various

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Title: Songs from the Southland

Author: Various

Editor: Sarah Frances Price

Release Date: August 28, 2008 [EBook #26445]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONGS FROM THE SOUTHLAND ***

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[Illustration: (signed) Very Truly Yours,
Paul H. Hayne.]

SONGS
FROM THE SOUTHLAND

SELECTED BY
S. F. PRICE

[Illustration]

BOSTON
D. LOTHROP COMPANY
WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIEL

COPYRIGHT, 1890,
BY
D. LOTHROP COMPANY.

SONGS
FROM THE SOUTH-LAND.

THE CLOSING YEAR.

GEORGE D. PRENTICE.

'Tis midnight's holy hour, and silence now
Is brooding, like a gentle spirit o'er
The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds
The bell's deep tones are swelling; 'tis the knell
Of the departed year. No funeral train
Is sweeping past; yet, on the stream and wood,
With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest
Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred,
As by a mourner's sigh; and, on yon cloud,
That floats so still and placidly through heaven,
The spirits of the Seasons seem to stand.
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form,
And Winter with its aged locks--and breathe
In mournful cadences, that come abroad,
Like the far windharps wild, touching wail,
A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year,
Gone from the earth forever.

'Tis a time
For memory and for tears. Within the deep,
Still chambers of the heart, a spectre dim,
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of time,
Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold
And solemn finger to the beautiful
And holy visions, that have passed away,
And left no shadow of their loveliness
On the dead waste of life. The spectre lifts
The coffin-lid of Hope and Joy and Love,
And bending mournfully above the pale,
Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers
O'er what has passed to nothingness.

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