Anon the stream grows wide and deep,
While here and there wild breakers leap,
O’er rocks half hidden by the flood,
Where for ages they have stood,
Upon whose bleak and rugged crest,
Many a proud form sank to rest,
And many a heart untouched by care
Laid its unstained offering there.
Ah! they have met a happier lot,
Whose bark was wrecked ere they forgot
The pleasing scenes of childhood’s years,
’Mid that tempestuous vale of tears
Which farther on begirts the stream,
Where phantom hopes like lightning gleam
Through the murky air, and flit around
The brain with hellish shrieking sound
Conjuring up each mad’ning thought,
With black despair or malice fraught.
Swiftly, on in our course we go
To where sweetest flow’rs are hanging low
We stretch our hand their stems to clasp
But ah! they’re crush’d within our grasp,
While forward th’ rushing stream flows fast
And soon the beauteous scene is past.
At last we view another sight,
The shore with drifted snow is white,
The stream grows dark and soon we feel
An icy coldness o’er us steal,
We cast our eyes ahead and see
The ocean of Eternity.
When once amid its peaceful waves
No holier joy the bosom craves—
Ten thousand stars are shining bright
Yet one reflects a purer light—
No sooner does its glowing blaze
Attract the spirit’s wand’ring gaze,
Than all is turned to joy we see—
That star is Immortality.
[John Henry Kimble.]
John Henry Kimble was born in Buckingham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1850. He is the second son of Henry H. Kimble, and is descended on his father’s side from English stock, being a lineal descendant from Governor John Carver, who came to this country in the Mayflower in 1620. On his mother’s side, his grandfather, Seruch Titus, was a prominent citizen of Bucks county, and, as his name indicates, was of Italian descent.
Mr. Kimble moved with his parents to the Fourth Election district of Cecil county, in the Spring of 1855, and has been engaged in farming all his life, except two years spent in teaching in our public schools. He is a popular music teacher and performer on musical instruments, and has won local distinction as a debater.
In 1870 his first verses were published in the Morris Scholastic a newspaper published in Grundy county, Illinois. He afterwards wrote for the Cecil Whig. In 1875 he wrote “The Patrons of Husbandry,” a serial poem, which was published by the Grange organ of the State of Pennsylvania, in seven parts, with illustrations. It was pronounced by competent critics to be one of the “best and most natural descriptions of farm life ever written.” It attracted wide attention and received favorable comment from the N.Y. World and other leading papers. He wrote another serial in 1876, entitled “Two Granges.”
Mr. Kimble makes no pretensions as a writer and has never allowed his love of literature to interfere with his farm work. In the Winters of 1872, ’73 and ’74 he taught in the public schools of this county with satisfaction to his patrons.