BROTHER JONATHAN's LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE.

Kumara Times, Issue 419, 29 January 1878, Page 4

BROTHER JONATHAN's LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE.

Bt Olivee Wendell Holmes. This beautiful poem was written upon the announcement of the passage of the u Ordinance of Secession,” on the 20th December, 1860, by the Convention of South Carolina, the first State which attempted to secede. She has gone—she has left us in passion and pride— Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our aide 1 She has tom her own star from our firma- , ment’s glow, And turned on her brother the face of a foe! O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, We can never forget that our hearts have been one— Our foreheads both tiprinkled in Liberty’s ' name, ' From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame I Ton were always too feady to fire at a touch; 1 But we said, She is hasty—she does not mean much.” We have scowled, when you uttered some • turbulent threat ; -But friendship still Whispered, •“Forgive ' and forget ,f’ Baa-our love all died out ? Have its altars grown cold 3 Has the curse come at last which the fathers foretold ? Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain That her petulant children would sever in vain. 'They may fight till the buzzards are . gorged wiih their spoil, Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil, Till the wolves and the catamounts troop V from their caves, -And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves ; ( Tn vain is the strife 1 When its fury is past, 'Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last, .As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow Rolled mingled in peace through the valleys below. •Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky: -Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die! ,'Though darkened with though clovenwith steel,, ’The .blue arch' will brighten, the waters , yriuheal'! D Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, There are battles with fate that can never ' be won! • The star-flowering banner must never be : furled, * -For ite blossoms of light are the hope of the world ! ‘Go t then, pur rash sister'! afar and aloof— Run wild in the sunshine, away from our roof-, But wh.enyour heart aches and your feet haye grown sore, jßemember the pathway that leads to our door!