Benjamin Franklin Taylor （b. 1819,d. 1887） was born at Lowville,N.Y. He graduated at Madison University,of which his father was president. In 1845 he published "Attractions of Language." For many years he was literary editor of the "ChicagJournal." Mr. Taylor wrote considerably for the magazines,was the author of many well-known favorite pieces both in prose and verse,and achieved success as a lecturer.
1.Oh,a wonderful stream is the river of Time,As it runs through the realm1 of tears,With a faultless rhythm2 and a musical rhyme3,And a boundless sweep and a surge4 sublime,As it blends with the ocean of Years.
2.How the winters are drifting,like flakes of snow,And the summers,like buds between;And the year in the sheaf-sthey come and they go,On the river‘s breast,with its ebb and flow,As it glides in the shadow and sheen.
3.There’s a magical isle up the river of Time,Where the softest of airs are playing;There‘s a cloudless sky and a tropical clime,1Realm,region,country.2Rhythm,the harmonious flow of vocal sounds.3Rhyme,a word answering in sound tanother word. 4Surge,a great,rolling swell of water.And a song as sweet as a vesper1 chime,And the Junes with the roses are staying.
4.And the name of that isle is the Long Ago,And we bury our treasures there;There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow- There are heaps of dust-but we love them so!-There are trinkets and tresses of hair;
5.There are fragments of song that nobody sings,And a part of an infant’s prayer,There‘s a lute unswept,and a harp without strings;There are broken vows and pieces of rings,And the garments that she used twear.
6.There are hands that are waved,when the fairy shore By the mirage2 is lifted in air;And we sometimes hear,through the turbulent roar,Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before,When the wind down the river is fair.
7.Oh,remembered for aye3 be the blessed Isle,All the day of our life till night-When the evening comes with its beautiful smile,And our eyes are closing tslumber awhile,May that "Greenwood." of Soul be in sight1Vesper,pertaining tthe evening service in the Roman Catholic Church.2Mirage,an optical illusion causing objects at a distance tseem as though suspended in the air. 3Aye ,always,ever.