Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/661

MAEY A. SHORT. Mart Asenath Short, daughter of Daniel and Anne W. Short, was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1833. In 1850 she removed with her parents to Columbus, Ohio. Her first published poems were contributed to the Weekly Ohio Statesman, then conducted by Samuel Medary. She is well known as Cultivator Mart, having frequently written over that signature for the Ohio Cul- tivator, and for "Grace Greenwood's" Little Pilgrim. Her later poems, published in Arthur's Home Magazine and Beadle's Home Monthly, have been signed Fannt True. Miss Short is now a resident of Plymouth, Richland county, Ohio. ANOTHER YEAR. Like a child by the sea-shore standing. Where the waves sweep up in their pride, I stand by the brink of the closing year. And watch its receding tide. Whatever of good, whatever of wrong, To its dashing waves I have cast, Will return again, when the tide rolls in With the scroll of the mighty Past ! Remorseless waters ! ye mock and play, Ye surge o'er many a wreck. O'er many a wreck of home and heart, As over a shattered deck. But on, in the strength of its native pride. Sweeps the majestic sea; Bearing the years, with their records and deeds. To the shores of Eternity ! Shall we idly wander upon the strand ? Shall we gather the shells that lay Rose-hued and pearl, amid the foam. Tossed up by the mocking spray ? Shall we heed the roar of the restless deep, While the waves roll up and recede, And the record they bear — a blank, per- chance. Or a wrong or unworthy deed ? A white-capped billow is nearing the shore. It is welcomed with hope and fear ; And the name we read on its jeweled crest, Is the name of another year ! Then on the breast of the breaking wave. Rich tokens of good we'll cast. And they shall return, when the tide sweeps in, With the scroll of the mighty Past ! GONE HOME. " Dust to dust," the Preacher said, Above the form of the sleeping dead ; " Ashes to ashes," let her be, Alone in her holy purity. Folded the hands upon her breast. Mocking the semblance of dreamy rest ; ( 645 )