The First Shearing (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A Requiem. William McK1NLEY. Aye! weep, Columbia, o'er thy noble dead; Wide as the ocean is thy sorrow spread; This man of men who sleeps in death to-day Was Nature's chosen child; and though away His spirit wings its flight, to sunnier shores, The glory of his birth and life are yours. Yet in thy sorrow indignation burns, That freedom's bounty should meet such returns; That the foul weed of anarchy should dare To take its root, and bud and blossom here; Bearing such fruit, in discontent and hate, And murd'rous madness that seeks but the great. But for the heart that mourns its mate to-day, In the fair prime of manhood swept away, The gentle woman's heart that stands alone, Words have no power to comfort or atone For its great loss; but he who gives us breath Can soften e'en the bitterness of death. Alone she mourneth not, for, far and wide, Sweeps on the wail of mourning, as a tide At full overflowing, every boundary burst; She hath this comfort -? he was hers at first, His country's afterward. And so at last, He shall be hers again, all sorrow passed. So bear him homeward, to his place of rest, In the pure dignity he honored best; And bend, Columbia, thy sun-kissed head In meek submission o'er th' illustrious dead, Remembering in thy sorrow, God hath might, All things, in his good time, to flood with light. Mary, Queen of Scots. I Know not if thy fate were just, Or if thy sins were so; I only know, as dust to dust, Thou drankest deep of woe: An infant lay upon thy breast, Was cradled in thy arms; And if 'twas faithless ? yet how blest A soul with half thy charms. My Sweetheart. My sweetheart is young and tender, My sweetheart is loyal and true, As a sapling supple and slender, With eyes of a nut-brown hue; Wh...