Select Poetry.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 37, 25 March 1875, Page 3

Select Poetry.

[ THE PLOUGHMAN. ; j Clear the brown path to meet his coulter's gleam I Lo ! on he comes, behind his smoking team, j With, toil's bright dew-drops on his sunburnt brow, The lord of earth, the hero of the plough. First in the field before the reddening sun, . i Last in the shadows when the day is done, I? ne i after line » alon S the bursting sod, ' ' j Marks the broad acres where his feet have ..trod; Still, where he treads, the stubborn clods divide, . ... The smooth, fresh furrow opens deep and wide : Matted and dense the tangled turf upheaves, ■'•-:•>":.. Mellow and dark the ridgy cornfield cleaves; Up the steep hill-side, where the laboring train o Slants the long track that scores the level plain, - -.- Through the moist valley, clogged with oozing clay, ■ ( The patient convoy breaks its destined way; :.-■• • ■■ '■ <-- At every turn the loosening chains resound, The swinging ploughshare circles glistening round,: Till the wide field one billowy waste appears, And wearied hands unbind the panting steers. . " These are the hands whose sturdy labor . brings ■ <-- ■ :'- _*;■ ' ••{ :-r The peasants food, the golden pomp of kings: • This is the page, whose letters shall be seen Changed by the sun to words of living ; t green. , - : ~ This is the scholar, whose immortal peri Spells' the first lesson hunger taught to : I men : These are the lines that heaven* com- '■ minded Toil. '. . ; < Shows on his deed—the charter of tbe j ' -soil! : J ■ ■ i : ' ' >• O gracious mother, whose benignant breast Wakes us to life, and lullsus all to rest, Ho w thy sweet features, kind , to every 'clime; " „..-• ..v . ; . *y Mock with their smile the wrinkled front ■-' of time! ; '"■- " ' r a^ r« - We stain the flowers— -they blossom o'er : ... the dead ; . - .' /.• - v ( ' , We rent thy bosom, and it gives us bread ; O'er the red field that trampling strife has ; torn "■'• •-•- " ; .:--A--Jrj \'[ ? Waves the green plumage of thy tasselled corn; Our maddening conflicts scar thy fairest • > plan, '"' _ VVV 1.;■" ' ■■';■" : '" " Still thy soft answer is the growing grain. Yes; O Our Mother,^ while uncoiinted i charms v ■•' 'v/ \A _ Steal round our hearts in thine embracing i arms, ; '.:/-'■ ■::/>' : ) ■;;>^>ri ■*-. r-O Let not our virtue in thy, love decay,And thy fond Sweetness wasWoti^ strength away. " -r No ! by- these hills, whose. banners now ! displayed In blazing cohorts Autumn has 'arrayed ; By yon twin summits, on whose "splintery i A crests' v.A ;•■' -.T '-f-rnl < \ f 0 The tossing hemlocks hold the eagles* ! ---nests-; — -„.- - By these) fair ; plains the mbuntaiai circle • screens, .'. And feeds with streamlets from its dark i ravines; — JTrue itcntheir home, these j faithful (jamwr i shall toil * Jf-tl To;crown with peace their own untainted:: | ' soil; "' '".'. ".".' ' * „ And, 1 true' to God, to freedom, 'to mankind,/ If her . chained: bandogs -Faction, ghaU jOni? j '~"b'ind7, / ''/" ". '„* .: ,/"",' .'o {These ''sf-tely- forms, that J bending iVeS v U'j ■ffiflfe^ >s.v.*: :--'■: i r-hiJopiioii - Bowed their strong manhood to the humble Shall rise erect; the guardian of- the land, The same etern iron, mrthe same right | band,' : ' : v ' K ' IJi *'"/ I '; v 5 Till o'er their hills the shouts of triumph • ran-?—; — — — . . , . . .v; The sword hss^rescuea^ wmtMthe^plonghj share won !.-^. c; ' >- c c/. *,h