Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/516

OBED J. WILSON. The school-teachers of the West have contributed a proportionate share of our poet- ical literature, which will survive partial friends and special interests. Mr. Wilson holds respectable rank among them. Ten years ago he was a frequent writer to the daily and weekly papers of Cincinnati. In a note, from which in justice to him we quote, Mr. Wilson says : My poems were written when the pastime of Aersifying involved no censurable neglect of the serious duties of life. At a time of life when my enjoyments left me some leisure, I found much pleasure in making rhymes. For the past eight or ten years I have written but little. Mr. Wilson is a citizen of Cincinnati, and is the literary referee of the book pub- lishing firm of Winthrop B. Smith & Company. He is about thirty-five years of age. THE STARS. Heralds of power, in beauty sent, All flaming from the hand of God, To sweep along the firmament, And bear his glorious seal abroad. Ye roll as grandly, proudly bright. As erst ye rolled in youthful prime, And fling your i-ays of i-osy light Along the starry steeps of time. I stand entranced, and gaze afar Across the blue long reach of heaven, And watch each richly-blazing star Come pressing through the shades of even ; Till far around the cope of night. All downward to its dusky hem, Is beaming, beautifully bright. With many a radiant stellar gem. Ye central suns, that power divine Sent wheeling through the deeps of space, I come to worship at your shrine, And in his works their author trace ; Through nature, in its varied forms, Behold the high omnific hand. That braids the lightnings, weaves the storms, And wraps old ocean round the land. Whose was the hand that fashioned space. And walled it with the violet sky ; That bade the stars go forth and trace Their pathways through immensity? Wiio rolled the waves of darkness back, And loosed your streams of silvery rays, To flow along the golden track. That each pursues through endless maze? The stars in concert sweetly join The glorious answer to rehearse ; Proclaiming, 'twas a hand divine That framed the mighty universe ; That decked it with all gorgeous dyes, And gemmed it with eftiilgent spheres. And robed it with the sapphire skies, — The grand chronometer of years. Roll on, ye stars, sublimely roll In beauty and in grandeur on, ( 500 )