SELECTED POETRY. A SORROWFUL HISTORY.

Colonist, Volume XIII, Issue 1302, 18 March 1870, Page 4

SELECTED POETRY. A SORROWFUL HISTORY.

The Omnba Republican gives the following history of this urochution, which the London Spectator has nro'-'vuced the finest poem ever written in America. 1-. -"lie r-vly part of the war, one dark Saturday night in"tW clffiJ of winter, there died in the Commercial H^pital in Cincinnati, a young woman, over whose hVia o'^.f two and twenty summers had passed. She hfi'l bf-.'-'. -nee possessed of an enviable share of Viiuiv.ti-id had bcm, as she herself Buys, flattered, ■ ~i .1 -'■ f-'it for the charms of the face; butalus! vo-, ii t /ii.'"rb:-<yw had long been written that terrible "■■,. t Once the pride of respectable parent- , ■ ov f.rst'wronr -it-ep was the small beginning of ." t nup'.dEtuv'over again, which has been the on1 )• -U-vy yf thousands. Highly educated, and . .; ~>;<-!>•-! in manner?, she might have shone in ';,.,',, i H > 5! 'ri ■:v'i?fy. But the evil hour that proved W V v,.; , r'uuv, :-nrt having spent, a young life in dis•vj ■•• :!nd shame, the poor friendless one died the r«'-;'.p.'''.ii'v' dentil of a broken-hearted outcast.' \V-V'"ber personal c-fleets was found in MS. "The H utfful Snow," which -t.s immediately carried to 1 •'• > jj 'Reed, a gentleman of culture and literary «.i-(-^ a.-.d the then editor of the National Union. >n Vlic* columns of that paper, on the morning of the ; :uv following the girl's death, (he poem appeared m Mfint fr.v the^first time. When the paper containing ihe jinom carae out on Sunday morning, the body of the victim had not received burial. The attention ot '<■'■£>:—.s Buchanan Eeed, one of the first American •wets was soon directed Lo the newly-published lines, !iivl lie was fo taken with their stirring pathos, that • 1S in.mediately followed the corpse to its final resting i i lace. THE BEATJTIFTTIi SNOW. " On! the snow, the beautiful snow, V;i!'r.rc Ihe sky and the earth below ; : )v.;r i!;e house tops, over the street, 0 w the he-ids of the people you meet, ■ "vt'.'o-, flirting, skimming along: : . iuitifu'l snow ! it can do nothing wrong ; 1 lyiii" lo kiss a fair krly's cheek, i ;in Tiiis; to lips in a frolicsome ireak ; ' .iivifiil snow from the heavens above, i'-.iro as an angel, gentle as love. <■ !i! Hie snow, the beautiful snow, ;, 'x ire unkpp gather and !im«h ns they go \< iii'lirii! iibout in their n'.nddening fun, ■ rfiv i" its gee wiih i-vcrjone— > •'.-ii.c, iii'.i&l'.iu':, hurrying by, :-.. -• ,-'ti ('■ o l»cc iun\ nparklcs the eye, :•;; ii..;-, wi-'ii ii l;»ri> uiid a bound, ■y. ;,!■ 1 hi- rryMnl-i lh-it edfiv around — : • 1.-.vi is alive and its heart in a glow, , v, i•:• ome the coming of beautiful snow. ' ... .ri.ii'iy the rrowd gors swautig along, "..a.ii .\ cac'i other wi;h humor am) song! i :...v the guy sledges like meteors fla.*h by, I -frht for a moment, ihen lost to the eye ! • ''.iijiinc, swinging, dashing they go, ■< '-.•f-T tie i-riist of the beautiful snow— • :,.:\v so pure when it falls from the sky, ', > to nake one regret to see it lie, T.i to trampled and tracked by the thousands of feet, ■; .11 it blei.ds with the li.tli in the horrible street. (''ice I wns as pure ns the snow, but I fell, >;] !ii;e the snow li»ke« from heaven to hell; I.1! to hi tr.i-npled as filth in the street; ■ ';■'] io be scoli'ed, to he spit on and beat, "•'ieadine, cursing, dreading to die, :•• filing uiy soul to whoever would buy; ■■ .?;tliig in shame for a morsel of bread, ■ -.ting the living and fearing the dead. Merciful God! Have I fallen so low ? Aad yet I was once like the beautiful snow ! '.'•-:ce I was fair as the beautiful snow, Yv'ith an eye like its crystal, a heart like its glow ; '.'nee I wa-i loved for my innocent grace — : iatrered and sought for the charms of my face ; '/athor, mother, sister and all, • ";od and myself I have lost by my fall; ■ho veriest wretch that goes shivering by Will make a wide swoop lest I wander too nigh ; For all that there is on or above me I know J'nere is nothing so pure as the beautiful snow. Tfow strange it should be that this beautiful snow ■hould fall on a sinner with nowhere to go! rfow strange should it be, when night come ag»in, '■ i the snow and the ice struck my despeiate brain! i-'ainl ing, freeziug, dyiug alone. Too wicked for prayer, too weak for a moan To be heard in the Btreets of the crazy town, Gone mad in the joy of the snow coming down ; To be and to die in my terrible woe, With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow. flVljJess and foul as the trampled snow, :••;-..;n-r, despair not! Christ stoopeth low ',o !-...■:.(■ the soul that is lost in its sin, A-:.! a..',3" it to life and enjoyment again. Orcar.irjj. bleeding, dying lor thee, The Crucified hung on the accursed tree. His accents of mercy fell soft on thine ear— Is there mercy for "me ? Will he heed my prayer ? Oh GoA ! in the stream that for sinners did flow, Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."