Man of Uz, and Other Poems | Page 4

256
Miss Emily B. Parish, 258
Harriet Allen Ely, 260
Miss Catharine Ball, 261
Mrs. Morris Collins, 263
Mrs. Margaret Walbridge, 265
The Brothers Buell, 267
Mr. Phillip Ripley, 269
Richard Ely Collins, 271
Miss Elizabeth Brinley, 273
Mr. John A. Taintor, 275
THE MAN OF UZ.
A JOYOUS FESTIVAL.--
The gathering back?Of scattered flowrets to the household wreath.?Brothers and sisters from their sever'd homes?Meeting with ardent smile, to renovate?The love that sprang from cradle memories?And childhood's sports, and whose perennial stream?Still threw fresh crystals o'er the sands of life.?--Each bore some treasured picture of the past,?Some graphic incident, by mellowing time?Made beautiful, while ever and anon,?Timbrel and harp broke forth, each pause between.?Banquet and wine-cup, and the dance, gave speed?To youthful spirits, and prolong'd the joy.

The patriarch father, with a chasten'd heart?Partook his children's mirth, having God's fear?Ever before him. Earnestly he brought?His offerings and his prayers for every one?Of that beloved group, lest in the swell?And surging superflux of happiness?They might forget the Hand from whence it came,?Perchance, displease the Almighty.
Many a care?Had he that wealth creates. Not such as lurks?In heaps metallic, which the rust corrodes,?But wealth that fructifies within the earth?Whence cometh bread, or o'er its surface roves?In peaceful forms of quadrupedal life?That thronging round the world's first father came?To take their names, 'mid Eden's tranquil shades,?Ere sin was born.
Obedient to the yoke,?Five hundred oxen turn'd the furrow'd glebe?Where agriculture hides his buried seed?Waiting the harvest hope, while patient wrought?An equal number of that race who share?The labor of the steed, without his praise.?--Three thousand camels, with their arching necks,?Ships of the desert, knelt to do his will,?And bear his surplus wealth to distant climes,?While more than twice three thousand snowy sheep?Whitened the hills. Troops of retainers fed?These flocks and herds, and their subsistence drew?From the same lord,--so that this man of Uz?Greater than all the magnates of the east,?Dwelt in old time before us.
True he gave,?And faithfully, the hireling his reward,?Counting such justice 'mid the happier forms?Of Charity, which with a liberal hand?He to the sad and suffering poor dispensed.?Eyes was he to the blind, and to the lame?Feet, while the stranger and the traveller found?Beneath, the welcome shelter of his roof?The blessed boon of hospitality.
To him the fatherless and widow sought?For aid and counsel. Fearlessly he rose?For those who had no helper. His just mind?Brought stifled truth to light, disarm'd the wiles?Of power, and gave deliverance to the weak.?He pluck'd the victim from the oppressor's grasp,?And made the tyrant tremble.
To his words?Men listened, as to lore oracular,?And when beside the gate he took his seat?The young kept silence, and the old rose up?To do him honor. After his decree?None spake again, for as a prince he dwelt?Wearing the diadem of