Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3606, 17 July 1880, Page 1

Select Poetry.

THE STRANGE OLD CLOCK. The corner clock, with a tick and a took, \ From morning swings till night; And we' may be sad, or we may be glad, , It* face is always bright: , : . From tide to side, from fide to tide, . ' • , It a wings from day, to day, Front week to week, from month to month, Itswiugs the year* away. It awingi away as it swung on the day ' When Mary and I were wed, When we stopped before the step at the. door. And M Thia i- our house," I said; ' And there when we opened it what should we hear ' ' , , f But a welcoming tick, tick, tock | * And the Tory first thing that Mary aaw ' Was the grand old coper clock. And every day as it ticked away She polished it till it shone, By the dancing light of the fire at night, Wifib a face as brfagfeas her qynuV It ticked for the jnjppy weeks ai* months, ' It ticked to the cradle's rock, And seemed as happy as all; the house, "~u ~ A The grand old corner dock! "tfhen Htt> feet pattered across the floaty „ , And Mary .would sew and sing, „ , „,v . .. .And the: tick and thetock of the comer clock Kept time to every thing. „, „«.„.« To work ail day for the ones you lore ' Is happiness nought can mead i And it was a happy tine was that, ■■• <■ .And itemed as 'twould never end. It came so slowly, we scarcely knew When tbedear Httle face grew pale; It seemed as likely the clock should atop, As the pattering feet should fail;; ~ J But the feet grew still; and the face grew pale. And paler everyday;' '.' ' ' . i ■ .< Till at lut we knew God lored ovij&fa, ■ indwWtakingit'away. ;•£•£?& The last-night came, we sat and watched The little bedside around, And the tick and the: took of the earner clock Had' a dreary; dreary" sound; ' From aide to aide, -from side to side, ■"" ' The sounds of the seconds fell, Each louderand louder than the last, Like the toll of a passing bell. '; And all was quiet out the Peking dock, - Or sometimesa half-bashed sobj •' ' ""• • And every swing of the ticking doakv . .•-. Gave my heart anaching throb. „;.■'-; ,- Bnt suddenly as I watched it swing : ? -■ 'I' seened to give a thrill,. „. '■ And stopped in its swinging from aide to aide, * And trembled--and then was stilL And all at once on the house was a hash, And welooked~^«nd our child was dead; Thefitrange old corner declc had; stopped- - When the dear little, spirit fled. ■, , : It might be the wind,or a tpneh on the"wall That stopped it—or many a thing; Built laemed the^angel that took out child Had^uahed it with its ying* ; .- Ah, it waaVsad, cad time, **&&}&& I don't know, how it pasted^ Till the burial came, and the giuej. ipd .- Grew over the grave at last. And the dock, was still, and the ; iulenfc dayt Went over one by one,; * f J'"", \- And no one meddled the clbek—it seamed Forgetting who was gone.' And the winter went past* till, a aonung came— " ' '.' /';';- ' '■;-'' \ ; A Sabbath day in spring, '. . When church bells'rang,[andl the^birdieaaasg Bni'l Tisttped, and there was another aWnd, , A strange, strange, tick, tlck,^ tpck, ' "„, . And I started as if I had seen a ghostr- ' Twas'the sound of the corner c100jj.'.,.. From side topside, from' aide to aide*// "- - It ticked and ticked away, •■'*•• ■■>--■-' And eeetned as bright in the morning light As the sunny. Sabbath day. ■ It might be the; wjnd, m acareleH/hand'— But I rather, would believe ■-■ Twas ourcbild'aown angel .voice that apoke, -.. Bidding:us cease to grieve..,..",.-. „; „ , And. our. days once '« they pasted . before,., „ „.. ''■ ' WentbyinworkaiidMat,','/ „ Onr children since then are women and men— But. the flrtt one was the beat. And on winter night. flWr ( . children fit On my knee, and at my side, While Mary will knit, and teU how the dock Was. stopped when one first one died., The corner clock/with a tiok and a tock, Froba morning, swings till night, Andwe m^r be tad, or we,may be glad,' ! IU face ia always,bright s .' • „i V From side to side, frpm aide to sifte, ■,•■;}-> It swings from day to day, r \' ; *.\ " 'I. From week to week, fsem monUi to month, It swings the yeWaway.' ' " ,' v V n P. Tabbkt' MAOiiTW>,jsiß>d^rd.