Republican Herald

Poetry:

TAKE BACK THE BOWL.

Take back the bowl! Take back the bowl
Reserve it for polluted lips-
I will not bow a tameless soul
Beneath its dark and foul eclipse.
I know that life henceforth will be
A weary and unblessed thing;
That hope can lend no ray to me,
No flower along my pathway spring.

Well, be it so-my strife hath been
Beyond the low and vulgar aim-
The deeds of base and heartless men,
Have never dimm'd my bonny name;
And I am proud—aye, even now,
Amid the shades of deepening ill;
The fearless head-the open brow—
The briefless hand are left me still.

Take back the bowl!—I will not stoop
To this hallowed memories of the past—
They add no pangs to those I feel,
Nor shadows on the future cast.
Aye, take it back! let others brim
Oblivion o'er the haunted soul;
My memory is a blessed thing—
Away! away!—take back the bowl.

An upright heart—a guiltless brow—
A soul unbowed, are left alone;
I will not break in madness now,
The only staff I lean upon.
The keenest pangs that grief can send
Shall never prompt to deeds accursed—
Take back the bowl!—I will not bend
A towering spirit to the dust.

From the N. H. Sentinel.