Daily National Intelligencer

FOR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER:

THE DEPARTING YEAR.

In Western climes, where Day retires to rest—
Where sets the sun on fair Columbia's breast,
A Wanderer marks, through Recollection's tear,
The fading features of the parting Year
The circling Leader of the restless hours—
The Queen of leafless woods, and summer flowers—
The sign-directed guide of months and days,
Has wrapped her viewless form in midnight haze,
And passed away, like evening's farewell beam,
Or fleeting fancies of a morning dream.
Her eye, that viewed this world and all its climes,
The various change of seasons, states, and times,
Has seen the strife of Kingdoms and of Kings ;
And Peace, o'er fields of havoc, spreads her wings.
She saw Germania's plains surcharged with blood,
And Gallia's soil imbibe the crimson flood.
Her native pride and spirit rise and fall,
And Peace present her with a cup of gall.
She saw, at Waterloo, the Chief of France
Direct, in vain, his death-commissioned lance ;
Rapacious vultures light upon her fields.
Where drooped her Eagle's wings o'er broken shields ;
Grim ruin stalking o'er her purple flowers,
Creating deserts midst her viny bowers.
From Modern Europe's geographic page,
The fairest spot could Vision's powers engage
Is blotted out by Tyrant Hosts combined.
That conquered Peace by trampling on Mankind!
She saw proud Gallia bending to her fate—
Her Monarch's fall—The Bourbon plac'd in state
Upon a power-ungifted tottering throne,—
Whence scepter'd greatness with Napoleon's crown,
A captive o'er the waves to Helen's Isle.
To waste its civic wisdom in exile.
The Year has seen Columbia's Navy ride
High on the bosom of the Midland tide;
And heard her conquering brazen thunders roar.
With voice discordant on a hostile shore,
The foes of christian nations to confound—
While fierce Barbarians trembled at the sound !
Now Peace, companion of her elder reign,
Spreads wide her Dove-wings o'er the Western Main,
Two worlds combining—with their sea-girt lands,
In mutual intercourse and social bands.
And waving from the Orient to the West,
The Olive Branch that shades the Halcyon's nest.
The Year retires—as Nature's powers repose
Beneath the coverlet of virgin snows :—
The vegetable world in silence sleeps,
And o'er her wintry fields creation weeps;
While I, in pensive sadness, linger here,
To mark the footsteps of the Parting Year
F street, Washington City,
Dec. 31st, 1815.
I. MACDONALD