Written at sixteen years of age

⇉ Handshift:Calvin A. FryeAnother day has draunk the dews of youth And swelled the chronicle of ancient truth Of [?] Unclear or illegible  life-long records sadly sealed and sworn That mortal sman God bid and made to mourn But grie [?] Unclear or illegible f the hoar instructor of the wise Should profit yield and seek with ofapt surmise Whence are these waiting woes that hourly grow From all we see and feel yet fear to know Is it that low ambition's sordid aim Finds disappointment o'er her its gilded gain Is it that sensibility of soul Which bodeth ill and forms of ills the whole Or san [?] Unclear or illegible guine minds such daring dreams pursue As earth yields not to weary empty mortal view Aye 'tis the spirit's yearnings deep and vain Like the sepulchral That like the lamp's with [?] Unclear or illegible sepulchral steady flame Shining o'er features whence the spirit'sCorrected:spirits fled That p Points to some earthly joy distant or dead. Few were thy pastimes youth! but seldom knew I childhood's joyance yet luxuriant grew (Or sprang spontaneous from the soil of youth) Hopes boundless as delusive. These forsooth Cradled in sorrow longings wild and vain And That held the spirit captive in their train Oftimes Corrected: Ofttimes some mourner's deeper grief to cheer This heart would loose Corrected: lose its semblance to a tear Though formed to suffer in the crowd more gay And only joyed those hours to wear away And seek in solitude less often sought Than found food for the lonely mind in thought Whose fluttering throbs alternate hope and fear And earn the curse fate of disappointment near Earth, ocean's wave, night, mountains, moon and star Had each within my heart breast [?] Unclear or illegible  its worshipper In subtle essence lived that yearning deep To mingle with the universe and keep Vigils in prayer patient Lone vigils prayer and praise 'neath heaven's high do [?] Unclear or illegible me And people earth with visions of my own It was a bliss at gentle close of day When the lone spirit yearned to flee away To feel a fellowship of mystic tie With marshalled hosts adown the sunset sky Led forth by Hesperus in beauty mild Shining o'er earth's erring repentant child. E'en like some sorrowing mother seemed the sky To shed her pearly drops from pity's eye Then woo to slumber busy bird and bee Murmering Corrected: Murmuring what wouldst thou child of earth with me? Oh night, thou sister of my destiny! I ne'er c [?] Unclear or illegible oul [?] Unclear or illegible d gaze on thee in apathy Clouds were a presage a pavilion spread Over my natal housr and infant head Till like the stars hope peering through the gloom A meteor ray with radiance lit the tomb And patience meekness taughlt what suffering denied To vain endeavor, sophistry and pride E'en as the speechless camel bears his load Patient steady endurance on life's rugged road With mortal freedom but a wayward choice Procuring woe man takes a blind invoice Of lifes Corrected: life's real aggregate of good an [?] Unclear or illegible d ill Calls wisdom step-dameCorrected:stepdame and resists her will Does gravitation change its given law The rivers from the rocks their waters draw? Do thorns yield grapes the barren thistle figs Oaks become acorns mighty forests twigs? Shall reason bold the law of God assail In that the beam-filled eye can e'er avail Itself of good in undisputed right A [?] Unclear or illegible nd change its darkness to meridean light Blind circumstance works out the will of fate In gilded mockeries her glittering bait The phantom pleasure such as youth pursue Till bursts the bubble on the cheated view And disappointment lurks o'er pleasure's toil Blaming the seedling culture or the soil What an abyss we 'scape or fill If reason free is parent to false will Yet reason is made right instructing man That knowledge grew not after God's own plan Motive to mind like cause to dire effect Reason pursuades Corrected: persuades the thing we would reject Through nice necessity venture to chose Corrected: choose Playing life's game whether to win or loose Corrected: lose Revere the Bible's sacred page the knot'sCorrected:knots untied The moral power to will in Adam died Till mercy whispered from her blest abode Who died in Adam lives through Christ in GodI Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. ? Oh loftier mind and nobler fame to win Than crown or empire conquest over sin And ere this noxious weed its culture finds In tempting Edens where the serpent winds Uproot ambition sow with Truth and prayer And for the fruit implore our Maker's care. Morn thou art beautiful and one more bright From chaos born or primal Goddess night Ne'er shone upon this mundane opaque sphere Or crept through lattice on the child at prayer Thy rosy fingers ope Corrected: open the gates of day Forth leap the dancing hours in revel gay. And vapors from the mountain topsCorrected:mountaintops unfurled Their snowy pinions o'er a wicked world. Of storied clime of song or mystic lore Boasts not New England's frigid rock-boundCorrected:rockbound shore Nor shine for deities or poet's fame But gentle Ceris Corrected: Ceres waves her golden grain And hardy industry with steady hand And scythe or sickle reaps the golden sand The goddess wealth hath sprinkled o'er our soil Obedient to the mandate "thou shalt toil."Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; How rocks and mountains wake a feeling near To my lone heart where naught is left so dear And hope becomes portion of that around Till fading scenes no more the spirit wound Home of my heart New England thou wilt be Forever mine I love the strong and free There breathes a living fragrance in thine air And sounds yet fresh with childhood to my ear Will live in memory. The vintage eve That hour of mirth and song the crowning sheave And full grownCorrected:full-grown ear of harvest garlands threw O'er winter's kingly brow and sterner view Then o'er the fireside hours unvanquished still Presided Venus with her merry skill And love and hope on kindred souls rely Amid that childish group. When one bright eye Turns ceaselessly with playful tender gaze On mother's watchful look of scorn or praise. Nor spring unnoticed in her changeful moods Her footsteps pass among the forest woods The budding birch the streamlet and the glade Are all redolent with the charms which made Them beautiful soft nurslings of the heart That summer suns wean to a manlier part O rapture pleasing can that vision fade From this dull heart which 'neath the maple's shade First wove for hope a garland fresh and fair As spring's first flowers a rainbow hung in air It spanned my future sky with promise blest Youth's fondest wish found in its radiance rest But thought hath wandered from the path pursued Caught by the wayside stranger happy mood Albeit so strange its oft forgotten strain Flits like a breeze athwart my empty brain But soon this lamp of life (tenacious spark) Vitality, within its socket dark Shall fade and frail mortality yield up To immortality life's bitter cup Sipped and laid down perchance the grief forgot In varying tones with thrilling numbers fraught Yet midst thise withered wastes of life earth one stream Of fount perennial living pastures green Flows gently forth from childhood by my side Changefulless as pure its ne'er receedingCorrected:receding tide And oft its fount of goodness bathes from woe And in its silv'ry surf and faithful flow I see that stream whose fount is purity In tranquil course on to eternity To mingle with its ocean depths above It is was a mother's deep undying love.