Literary Cadet And Rhode Island Statesman

THE RESOLUTION OF RUTH

This beautiful poem, originally made its appearance in the Christian Examiner; and from the signature attached to it, we presume it is from the pen of the Reverend Mr. Peabody, a clergyman, whose elegant effusions have more than once graced the columns of this paper.-

It is founded, as we think, on the following verses in the Book of Ruth, which describe the resolution of Ruth, and the affection she bore her mother.

"And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.--Ruth, I. xvi. and xvii.

Farewell! oh, no! it may not be;
My firm resolve is heard on high!
I will not breathe farewell to thee,
Save only in my dying sigh.

I know not that I now could bear
For ever from thy side to part,
And live without a friend to share
The treasured sadness of my heart.

I did not love in former years
To leave thee solitary now,
When sorrow dims thine eye with tears
And shades the beauty of thy brow.

I'll share the trial and the pain,
And strong the furnace fires must be;
To melt away the willing chain,
That binds a daughter's heart to thee:

I will not boast a martyr's might
To leave my home without a sigh
The dwelling of my past delight,
The shelter where I hoped to die.

In such duty, such an hour,
The weak are strong, the timid brave:
For love puts on an angel's power,
And faith grows mightier than the grave.

It was not so before we loved
And vainly strove with heaven to save,
Heard the low call of death, and moved
With holy calmness to the grave,

Just at that brightest hour of youth
When life spread out before us lay,
And charmed us with its tones of truth,
And colors radiant as the day.

When morning's tears of joy were shed,
Or nature's evening incense rose,
We thought upon the grave with dread
And shuddered at its dark repose.

But all is altered now--of death
The morning echoes sadly speak,
And like my loved one's dying breath,
The evening breezes fan my cheek.

For rays of heaven, serenely bright,
Have gilt the caverns of the tomb,
And I can ponder with delight
On all its gathering thoughts of gloom.

Then, Mother, let us haste away
To that blest land to Israel given,
Where faith, unsaddened by decay,
Dwells nearest to its native heaven.

We'll stand within the temple's bound,
In courts by kings and prophets trod;
We'll bless with tears the sacred ground,
And there be earnest with our God,

Where peace and praise forever reign,
And glorious anthems duly flow,
Till seraphs learn to catch the strain
Of heaven's devotions here below.

But where thou goest I will go;
With thine my early lot is cast;
In pain and pleasure, joy and wo,
Will I attend thee to the last:

That hour shall find me by thy side,
And where thy grave is, mine shall be
Death can but for a time divide
My firm and faithful heart from thee. W. P.