. Sun dials and roses of yesterday; garden delights which are here displayed in every truth and are moreover regarded as emblems . ot a singleword of my thought of a sun-dial: — **Gray dial-stone, I fain would know What motive placed thee hereWhere darkly opes the frequent grave And rests the frequent bier ;Ah, bootless creeps the dusky shade Slow oer thy figured plain :When mortal life has passed away Time counts his hours in vain. ** I think of those that raised thee here. Of those beneath thee ponder if thou wert not raised In mockery oer the , never sure could mortal man, W
. Sun dials and roses of yesterday; garden delights which are here displayed in every truth and are moreover regarded as emblems . ot a singleword of my thought of a sun-dial: — **Gray dial-stone, I fain would know What motive placed thee hereWhere darkly opes the frequent grave And rests the frequent bier ;Ah, bootless creeps the dusky shade Slow oer thy figured plain :When mortal life has passed away Time counts his hours in vain. ** I think of those that raised thee here. Of those beneath thee ponder if thou wert not raised In mockery oer the , never sure could mortal man, Whatere his age or raise in mocking oer the dead The stone that measures time. There still stands at the old home of Hugh Milleran ornate dial-stone (it will be noted that he neversays sun-dial) which he cut for amusement in aperiod of recovery from illness ; it is near anotherdial, an ancient one which he dug out of the earthwhen he was a boy, and which had originally beenset up in the old Castle garden of Cromarty. Bythe side of this ancient dial Miller first saw theyoung girl who afterward became his wife. The. Angel with Sun-dial on Cathedral, Genoa, Italy. The Charm and Sentiment of Sun-dials 15 dial-verses were written in early youth ; an age whenmost poets love to write upon death and gloomymoral lessons. Perhaps had he written them afterhe met his sweetheart, they might have been morenatural. However, the chief reason why I do notlike them is that they are not poetry ; they form aperfect example of Dr. Edward Everett Hales amus-ing method given in his advice How to Write, anexercise of capping verses. A true lover of Charles Lamb asserts that he everfinds in Lamb the best thoughts on any subject —whatever it may be ; thus, upon sun-dials he wouldbelieve that the ideal sentiment was expressed byLamb in his Essay on the Old Benchers of the InnerTemple. It is indeed inexpressibly fine in poeticfeeling — far beyond any poem we have; and de-serves quotation i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsundial, bookyear1902
