J. DUNBAR HYLTON, M. D. ABOVE THE GRATE OF John OoENS^TUiiaE, A COSMOPOLITE. BY J. DUNBAR HYLTON, M. D., AUTHOR OF "THE BRIDE OF GETTYSBURG," "ARTELOISE," "BETRAYED," "THE PR.^SIDICIDE," "THE HEIR OF LYOLYNN," ETC., ETC. NEW YORK: HOWARD CHALLEN, 744 Broadway. 1884. AND THE AUTHOR, PALMYRA, N. J. MAIS LIB. (X ho CONTENTS. Page The Lay of Mt. Vesuvius 5 Lay of the River Euphrates . - _ _ - 9 The Battle of the Dogs and Cats - - - - 23 My Jersey Girl --------37 She Waits for Me 41 To Jack 42 I Saw Her 43 - My Yankee Maid. ( The, original version) - - 45 Lost ------ 50 The Eagle 51 A Drunkard's Vision .-.-..-. 54 She 66 He 67 Leap Year ---------69 Again -----70 Song of the Sea --------72 Homer -75 Blind Old Ossian .____-- 76 510 — ; Above the Grave. THE LAY OF MT. VESUVIUS. From awful caves where discord raves With never-ending ire, From the roaring womb where thunders boom, While flames with flames aspire. From hills and glens and crypts and dens Of never-ending fire Deep in the earth, I draw my birth, And all my tumult dire. While lasts the flame in earth's vast frame I'll ne'er from her retire. With awful glow my lights I throw O'er ocean's sounding waves To ocean's flow and realms below My burning lava raves And roars, while cast in billows vast Adown my reeking sides It clears its path and fears no wrath From ought that there abides. It covers o'er forever more glen The forest, hill and ; The landscape green no more is seen, Nor homes of mortal men. It buries deep in lasting sleep All things that earthlings rear, The robe I throw on their works below (5) ABOVE THE GRAVE. No time away shall wear. O'er many a hall of stately wall My burning waves have roll'd, And man}'^ a town of great renown, Known in the days of old ; And o'er the world my fame is hurl'd, In every land 'tis told. Queens and Kings and mightier things, The bards of deathless song, Have heard my name and all my fame As years have rolled along. The poet's e^'e my deeds descry, He sees m}^ lava roll. He sees it fly to the starry sky, And move from pole to pole. He sees me gleam Avith pomp supreme Beyond all earth's control, He sees my stream in every dream. And wonder fills his soul. He sees me throw a tingcing glow On night's unfathomed gloom, The robe it wears straight disappears, It with lustre I illume. With wild delight the realms of night My gaudy robes assume, I make them bright, as man at night His chamber and his room. Of terrors free, he goes with me Into my dens of fire. Far down my cone he walks alone. Nor fears to meet its ire. Nor does he dread the least, to tread The centre of the world, Nor roaring tracts of cataracts Whence floods of flame are hurl'd. ; ABOVE THE GRAVE. 7 To fear unknown, explores alone My catacombs of flame Nor awful rim of my whirlpool grim His courage e'er can tame; Nor forms that swim with horrid limb Around that whirlpool's frame, That toss and roll with joy of soul, And shout my praise and name, The grisly source of all my force, And whence all my glory came, I lead him through caves where the fire king raves In his turbulent spirit of mirth, As he dances with glee and looks up to me From his throne in centre of earth. And the poet and me in friendship shall be As long as Dame Nature shall last, Be wedded through life, in peace and in strife, And our loves shall ever hold fast. I'll journey witli him wherever he whim, On the flood, the fire and blast; And the poet and I together shall die. Together be thing of the past. But we shall remain and in triumph shall reign Heedless of decay and of death, While waters shall flow and breezes sliall blow, And old Nature is teeming with breath. Until Father Time in his power sublime Shall lay her awny in her grave, Away in the womb of mortality's tomb, That rests 'neath immortality's wave. And Time shall bow down with his hoary white crown With eyes fading, dimming with gloom, And render his breath to the monarch of death, And only God shall look on his tomb. But that tomb is immortalitv's womb, ; — ABOVE THE GRAVE. And there shall Dame Nature and Time Engender amain, and come forth again Be reborn more grand and sublime. I mount to the sky and the poet doth fly Through the regions of space with me, I carry his soul to the uttermost pole, And my heart delights in his glee. The joy of his soul through my spirit doth roll, And it makes me wild with delight I hear his loved voice, it makes me rejoice. And I'll show my feelings to-night. To Etna I'll call, and my brethren all, Wherever those kindred be. Whether they stand Avith me on this land, Or over the turbulent sea, They must this night glow with delight, And rouse up tlieir fires for me. "We'll send forth a blast, make men look aghast At our wild and terrible glee. Stromboli I call, and Hccla the tall, And unto Orizaba the grim, Cotopaxi the strong, and all of the throng Whose entrails in lava do swim. We'll start up a light, and gladden the night, Nor heed how mortals shall (juail, As over the world our banners unfurl'd We'll spread on the tempest and gale. With thunder and roar ne'er witncss'd before Our flames to heaven shall sail; O'er sea and o'er land those flames shall expand, Cover ocean, mountain and vale. My brethren all, the great and the small, Who own a spirit of flame, Whose deeds stand sublime in annals of time, Nor blush at the sound of yc;ur name, ; ; ABOVE THE GRAVE. Tliis glorious night, come out with your might, Stream forth with your banners uni'urlVl, The flame of your strength shall grow in its length Till round all earth it is curl'd. M}'' crater shall roar, as never before, And vast shall my lava be hurl'd ; My furnaces glow, my fire-floods flow Like the oceans below when the tempests do blow, My thunders and flame that nothing can tame. And nothing can shame in Nature's vast frame, This night shall startle the world. Wake in your ire, roaring fountains of fire, In tempest expire wlien ruin most dire Round the whole earth ye have twirl'd. Through my dens, m}' chambers and caves My pealing thunders shall rattle, Such as for proud man never raves In his fiercest roarings of battle. LAY OF THE RIVER EUPHRATES Back in the past, midst ages vast. While earth 'neath waters lay. Midst rock}' ground I being found. And through it cut my way; 'Neath mighty waves, through winding caves, I flowed for many a day. Midst wondrous halls with coral walls Where grisly monsters dwell Round hidden isles that stretched for miles Where never sunlight fell Round serpents dread that make their bed Down on the water's floor. And creatures grim in form and limb —; ; ; 10 ABOVE THK GRAVE. That midst those waters roar. Midst horrid caves, the awful graves Of monsters long ago, O'er wastes of bones the water owns Did long my currents flow. And while around the floods profound My roaring waters ran, With teeming brain, midst vast inane, God was creating ^lan There came a time to me sublime, And all who did discern. High up the land, midst tumult grand, Terrific, wild and stern, Its lovely face to boundless space Did on one morning show, While waters roared, and rushing poured Down to the gulfs below ; The floods profound with rending sound To vast inane did flow. While there destroyed, or lost in void, Those rushing waters ran. With teeming mind, and spirit kind, God was creating Man. Joyous around, o'er rocky ground My eager gaze I threw The walls of white on mountain height Delighted I did view. The morning skies then met mine eyes All mirrored in my wave; With crimson glows the sun arose And warmth my flood he gave. Up fields of blue he higher drew, And warmer he became I blushed with joy like maiden coy And gladdened with his flame ; ABOVE THE GRAVE. 11 Down rocky hills in mighty rills I cut my course all day ; The softer ground I sought and found And down it made my way, And while my course through rocks I force He cheered me with his ray. As on I drew, I greater grew, Stronger and stronger still. For with his beam he warmed my stream And gave me nerve and will, And all the force to cut my course Through valley and o'er hill. Where'er I drew, where'er I flew. He ever poured his ray ; As I advanced his splendor glanced And seemed to lead the way In bright disport he me did court. And with my wavelets play. Perhaps the song that all day long I sang upon my course He'd chanced to hear—had charmed his ear, And drew him on perforce.