[Poems by Pinkney in] The life and works of Edward Coote Pinkney a memoir and complete text of his poems and literary prose, including much never before published |
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THE CARRIER'S ADDRESS TO THE PATRONS OF THE MARYLANDER
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 | [Poems by Pinkney in] The life and works of Edward Coote Pinkney |  |
162
THE CARRIER'S ADDRESS TO THE PATRONS OF THE MARYLANDER
Health, Patrons, and prosperity!—once more
Time, like the snake that was in days of yore,
His symbol, casts the old year as it were
His slough, and in the new, shows fresh and fair.
Time, like the snake that was in days of yore,
His symbol, casts the old year as it were
His slough, and in the new, shows fresh and fair.
As rose the prophet at the witch's call,
His visage mantled in a gloomy pall,
Today th' enchantress Fancy, bids arise
The shadowy future to our eager eyes.
Let Fear to others paint the face beneath,
In hues of sadness, misery, and death:
For you may cheer of mind and hope portray
A smiling aspect brilliant as the day,
Replete with promise of auspicious hours,
And lives like path-ways strewed with fragrant flowers.
His visage mantled in a gloomy pall,
Today th' enchantress Fancy, bids arise
The shadowy future to our eager eyes.
Let Fear to others paint the face beneath,
In hues of sadness, misery, and death:
For you may cheer of mind and hope portray
A smiling aspect brilliant as the day,
Replete with promise of auspicious hours,
And lives like path-ways strewed with fragrant flowers.
The past is past—its pains should merely seem
The unimportant shadows of a dream:
If to its parted pleasures memory sends
A thought, regard them but as absent friends.
“Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,”
So let the old-year vanish to its rest.
Not with it will depart your honest zeal
In his behalf, whose weal is public weal,—
Th' illustrious Statesman's, whose contested cause
Is that of union, liberty, and laws,—
The cause, at which, it will be prov'd again,
Slander's fell vipers hissed and hiss in vain.
The unimportant shadows of a dream:
If to its parted pleasures memory sends
A thought, regard them but as absent friends.
“Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,”
So let the old-year vanish to its rest.
Not with it will depart your honest zeal
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Th' illustrious Statesman's, whose contested cause
Is that of union, liberty, and laws,—
The cause, at which, it will be prov'd again,
Slander's fell vipers hissed and hiss in vain.
But this is New-Year's day—unwilling we
To mar its wonted, old festivity!—
Bright be each hearth, and plentiful each board,
Upon its throne sit light each bosom's lord;
And may no generous hand by cold distress
Be closed to him who bears this poor address!!
Enjoy not, oh! the festival alone,
But make his New-Year merry as your own.
To mar its wonted, old festivity!—
Bright be each hearth, and plentiful each board,
Upon its throne sit light each bosom's lord;
And may no generous hand by cold distress
Be closed to him who bears this poor address!!
Enjoy not, oh! the festival alone,
But make his New-Year merry as your own.
| [Poems by Pinkney in] The life and works of Edward Coote Pinkney | |