THE MINER.

Beyond the beams of brightening day

A lonely miner, moving slow

Along a darkly winding way,

Is daily seen to go,

Where shines no sun or cheerful ray

To make those gloomy caverns gay.

For there no glorious morning light

Is burning in a cloudless sky

And there no banners flaming bright,

Are lifted heaven-high,

But that lone miner, far from sight,

Treads boundless realms of boundless night.

There neither brook nor lovely lawn

Allures the miner's weary eye,

For, having caught one glimpse of dawn,

With many an anxious sigh,

Those precious lights are left in pawn

To be by fainter hearts withdrawn.

Nor tender leaf nor fragrant flower

Dare penetrate that fearful gloom,

Where, low beneath a crumbling tower,

Or dark, resounding room,

Yon miner, in some evil hour,

A ruined prisoner may cower.

Yet, while the day is speeding on,

Far from those skies that shine so clear,

Far from the glory of the sun

And happy birds that cheer —

Hark!— through those echoing caves, anon

The hammer's merry monotone.

There, far from every happy sound

Of blithesome bird or cheerful song,

In yonder solitudes profound,

The miner, all day long,

Hears his own music echo round

Those deep-voiced caverns underground.

There, in that gloom which doth affright

Faint-hearted, sky-enamoured men,

The miner, with his little light,

Hews out a hollow den,

And seems to find some keen delight

Where others see but noisesome night.

Thus many a heart, along life's way,

Must labor where no cheerful sun

Of golden hopes or pleasures gay,

Shines till the day is done,

For where the deepest shadows play

The purest hearts are led astray.

Yet some, unseen by careless Fate,

Know naught of gloom or sorrow here.

But happily, with hearts elate,

They walk a charmed sphere,

And lightly laugh, or lightly prate

Of lonely souls left desolate.

So are we miners, great and small,

By sunny slope or lower gloom,

And day by day we hear a call

As from the distant tomb,

But, when the evening shadows fall,

The lights of home will gleam for all.