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Gould. + </title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h1 { + line-height:2.5em; +} + +h2 { + margin-top:4em; +} + +h3, .likeh3 { + text-align:center; +} + +h3 { + page-break-before:always; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap { + width: 65%; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: #808080; +} /* page numbers */ + +.center {text-align: center;} +.center-right { + text-align: center; + padding-right:3em; +} + +.right { + text-align: right; + padding-right:1em; +} + +.smcap { + font-variant: small-caps; +} + +.gesperrt { + letter-spacing: 0.2em; + margin-right: -0.2em; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes { + margin-top: 3em; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} +.quote-container { + text-align:center; + font-size:90%; +} +.quote { + display: inline-block; + margin-left:12%; + margin-right:12%; +} + +.poem { + /*display: inline-block;*/ + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; + page-break-before:avoid; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} +.poem .stanza-break { + text-align:left; + margin-left:9em; + page-break-before:avoid; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-top:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 0.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i16 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i18 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i22 {display: block; margin-left: 11em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i28 {display: block; margin-left: 14em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + +.author { + margin-top:4em; + text-align:center; + font-size:1.5em; + line-height:2.5em; +} + +.publisher { + margin-top:6em; + text-align:center; + line-height:1.5em; +} + +.small { + font-size:90%; +} + +.tiny { + font-size:0.5em; +} + +.trans-heading { + text-align:center; + font-size:1.2em; +} + +.covernote { + visibility: hidden; + display: none; +} + +@media handheld { + .covernote { + visibility: visible; + display: block; + } + + hr.chap { + visibility: hidden; + } + +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44444 ***</div> + +<h1> +<span class="tiny">THE</span><br /> +<span class="gesperrt">MOTHER’S DREAM</span>,<br /> +<span class="tiny">AND</span><br /> +<span class="small gesperrt">OTHER POEMS.</span> +</h1> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="tiny">BY</span><br /> +<span class="gesperrt">HANNAH F. GOULD</span>.</p> + +<p class="publisher">BOSTON:<br /> +CROSBY, NICHOLS, & CO.<br /> +1853. +</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</a></h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> + <td align="left"></td> + <td align="center">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#BLOWING_BUBBLES">Blowing Bubbles,</a></td> + <td align="right">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#INFANT_FAITH">Infant Faith,</a></td> + <td align="right">4</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#PATTY_PROUD">Patty Proud,</a></td> + <td align="right">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#I_CAUGHT_A_BIRD">I caught a Bird,</a></td> + <td align="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_FLOWER_OF_SHELLS_AND_SILVER_WIRE">The Flower of Shells and Silver Wire,</a></td> + <td align="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_LITTLE_BLIND_BOY">The little Blind Boy,</a></td> + <td align="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SALE_OF_THE_WATER-LILY">The Sale of the Water Lily,</a></td> + <td align="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SILVER_BIRDSNEST">The Silver Birdsnest,</a></td> + <td align="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_QUAKER_FLOWER">The Quaker Flower,</a></td> + <td align="right">20</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_HUMMING-BIRDS_ANGER">The Humming-Bird’s Anger,</a></td> + <td align="right">22</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SABBATH">The Sabbath,</a></td> + <td align="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_DEPARTING_SPIRIT">The departing Spirit,</a></td> + <td align="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#SONNET">Sonnet,</a></td> + <td align="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#FATHER_HEAR">Father, hear,</a></td> + <td align="right">28</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_PILGRIMS_WAY_SONG">The Pilgrim’s Way Song,</a></td> + <td align="right">29</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_RISING_MONUMENT">The rising Monument,</a></td> + <td align="right">31</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#A_NAME_IN_THE_SAND">A Name in the Sand,</a></td> + <td align="right">34</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_CHILD_OF_A_YEAR_AND_A_DAY">A Child of a Year and a Day,</a></td> + <td align="right">35</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BELIEVERS_MOUNTAINS">The Believer’s Mountains,</a></td> + <td align="right">38</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_NIGHT_AND_THE_MORNING">The Night and the Morning,</a></td> + <td align="right">41</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#I_SHALL_BE_SATISFIED">I shall be satisfied,</a></td> + <td align="right">44</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_PENITENTIAL_TEAR">The Penitential Tear,</a></td> + <td align="right">46</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#TEACHINGS_OF_GOD">The Teachings of God,</a></td> + <td align="right">48</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_HERALDS_CRY_IN_THE_DESERT">The Herald’s Cry in the Desert,</a></td> + <td align="right">50</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#OUR_FATHERS_WELL">Our Father’s Well,</a></td> + <td align="right">52</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span><a href="#THE_MOTHERS_DREAM">The Mother’s Dream,</a></td> + <td align="right">56</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_WAR-SPIRIT_ON_BUNKERS_HEIGHT">The War Spirit on Bunker’s Height,</a></td> + <td align="right">60</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_INNER_SELF">The inner Self,</a></td> + <td align="right">64</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#TIME">Time,</a></td> + <td align="right">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#MY_HEAD">My Head,</a></td> + <td align="right">71</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_WHEAT_FIELD">The Wheat Field,</a></td> + <td align="right">74</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_LITTLE_TRAVELLER">The little Traveller,</a></td> + <td align="right">76</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_ENTANGLED_FLY">The entangled Fly,</a></td> + <td align="right">78</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_PEACH_BLOSSOMS">The Peach Blossoms,</a></td> + <td align="right">80</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BROKEN_PIPE">The broken Pipe,</a></td> + <td align="right">82</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#VIVY_VAIN">Vivy Vain,</a></td> + <td align="right">85</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_MOCKING_BIRD">The Mocking-Bird,</a></td> + <td align="right">89</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BIRDS_HOME">The Bird’s Home,</a></td> + <td align="right">92</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BIRD_UNCAGED">The Bird uncaged,</a></td> + <td align="right">93</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#DAME_BIDDY">Dame Biddy,</a></td> + <td align="right">95</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_ENVIOUS_LOBSTER">The envious Lobster,</a></td> + <td align="right">100</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#KIT_WITH_THE_ROSE">Kit with the Rose,</a></td> + <td align="right">102</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_STORM_IN_THE_FOREST">The Storm in the Forest,</a></td> + <td align="right">104</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_UPROOTED_ELM">The uprooted Elm,</a></td> + <td align="right">106</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THROUGH_THE_CLOUDS">Through the Clouds,</a></td> + <td align="right">108</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#MY_ROSE_TREE">My Rose Tree,</a></td> + <td align="right">110</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_INFANT_BAPTIST">The Infant Baptist,</a></td> + <td align="right">113</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#HYMN_TO_SOLITUDE">Hymn to Solitude,</a></td> + <td align="right">115</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BIBLE_IN_THE_FIELDS">The Bible in the Fields,</a></td> + <td align="right">117</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_HOARY_HEAD">The hoary Head,</a></td> + <td align="right">120</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#MY_FATHER">My Father,</a></td> + <td align="right">121</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#A_SAGE_HATH_DEPARTED">A Sage hath departed,</a></td> + <td align="right">124</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BURIAL_OF_SCHILLER">The Burial of Schiller,</a></td> + <td align="right">126</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#FUNERAL_HYMN_FOR_PRESIDENT">Funeral Hymn for President Harrison,</a></td> + <td align="right">129</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#DIRGE_FOR_FELICIA_HEMANS">Dirge for Felicia Hemans,</a></td> + <td align="right">131</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#SHE_DIED_AS_DAWNED_HER_NATAL_DAY">She died, as dawned her Natal Day,</a></td> + <td align="right">133</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#WRITTEN_IN_AN_ALBUM_AFTER_THE">Written in an Album, after the Lines of a deceased Friend,</a></td> + <td align="right">134</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SOVEREIGN_OF_BABYLON">The Sovereign of Babylon,</a></td> + <td align="right">135</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_DEER_STRICKEN_BY_TORCH-LIGHT">The Deer Stricken by Torch-light,</a></td> + <td align="right">137</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_DEATH_OF_SAPPHIRA">The Death of Sapphira,</a></td> + <td align="right">139</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#WILLIAM_AT_SEA">William at Sea,</a></td> + <td align="right">142</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#MY_PORTRAIT">My Portrait,</a></td> + <td align="right">146</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_WIDOWS_ONLY_SON">The Widow’s only Son,</a></td> + <td align="right">148</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_YOUNG_MOTHER">The Young Mother,</a></td> + <td align="right">150</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#EVENING_AT_ANDOVER_SEMINARY-HILL">Evening at Andover Seminary Hill,</a></td> + <td align="right">152</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#HYMN_OF_THE_PARTING_CLASS">Hymn of the parting Class,</a></td> + <td align="right">155</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span><a href="#THE_SPECKLED_ONE">The speckled one</a></td> + <td align="right">157</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_MOON_OF_A_WINTRY_NIGHT">The Moon of a Wintry Night,</a></td> + <td align="right">161</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#TOM_TAR">Tom Tar,</a></td> + <td align="right">165</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SEAMANS_HYMN">The Seaman’s Hymn,</a></td> + <td align="right">170</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_MARINERS_SONG_OF_DEPARTURE">The Mariner’s Song of Departure,</a></td> + <td align="right">172</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SEA-EAGLES_FALL">The Sea Eagle’s Fall,</a></td> + <td align="right">174</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_CAGED_LION">The caged Lion,</a></td> + <td align="right">177</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_TRAVELLER_AT_THE_RED_SEA">The Traveller at the Red Sea,</a></td> + <td align="right">179</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_HEBREW_CAPTIVES">The Hebrew Captives,</a></td> + <td align="right">181</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#FRAGMENTS_FROM_ESTHER_A_POEM">Fragments from “Esther,” a Poem,</a></td> + <td align="right">182</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#GONE_IN_HER_BEAUTY">Gone in her Beauty,</a></td> + <td align="right">185</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_NUN">The Nun,</a></td> + <td align="right">187</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#TREES_FOR_THE_PILGRIMS_WREATH">Trees for the Pilgrim’s Wreath,</a></td> + <td align="right">193</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_MUSHROOMS_SOLILOQUY">The Mushroom’s Soliloquy,</a></td> + <td align="right">194</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_SPIRIT_AND_THE_MOUNTAIN">The Spirit and the Mountain,</a></td> + <td align="right">195</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_FALL_OF_THE_STATUE">The Fall of the Statue,</a></td> + <td align="right">197</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_BIRDS_MATERNAL_CARE">The Bird’s Maternal Care,</a></td> + <td align="right">201</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#SONG">Song,</a></td> + <td align="right">205</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_WHITE_MOTH">The White Moth,</a></td> + <td align="right">207</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#EDWARD_AND_CHARLES">Edward and Charles,</a></td> + <td align="right">209</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#MUSIC_OF_THE_CRICKETS">Music of the Crickets,</a></td> + <td align="right">213</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHILDHOODS_DREAM">Childhood’s Dream,</a></td> + <td align="right">216</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_FRUIT-TREE_BLOSSOM">The Fruit Tree Blossom,</a></td> + <td align="right">218</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_PLYMOUTH_APPLE_DECLINED">The Plymouth Apple declined,</a></td> + <td align="right">220</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_HALF_APPLE">The half Apple,</a></td> + <td align="right">222</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_HORTICULTURISTS_TABLE-HYMN">The Horticulturist’s Table-Hymn,</a></td> + <td align="right">224</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_WHIP-POOR-WILL">The Whip-poor-will,</a></td> + <td align="right">227</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#THE_AUTUMN_ROSE-BUD">The Autumnal Rose-bud,</a></td> + <td align="right">230</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#TO_L_A_E_ON_HER_WEDDING-DAY">To L. A. E. on her Wedding-day,</a></td> + <td align="right">231</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#TO_MRS_H_F_L">To Mrs. H. F. L.</a></td> + <td align="right">233</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#MUSIC">Music,</a></td> + <td align="right">235</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="POEMS" id="POEMS">POEMS.</a></h2> + +<div> +<h3><a name="BLOWING_BUBBLES" id="BLOWING_BUBBLES">BLOWING BUBBLES.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Half</span> our sorrows, half our troubles,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Making head and heart to ache,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are the fruit of blowing bubbles,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bright to view, but quick to break.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All have played the child imbecile,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Breathing hard to swell the sides<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a shining, fluid vessel,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Frailer than the air it rides.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From the infant’s cradle rising,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All the bubble mania show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft our richest wealth comprising<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the bubbles that we blow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Brilliant, buoyant, upward going,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pleased, we mark them in their flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Every hue of iris showing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As they glance along the light.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Little castles, high and airy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With their crystal walls so thin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each presents the wicked fairy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2"><em>Vanity</em>, enthroned within!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when two have struck together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What of either do we find?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not so much as one gay feather<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Flying Hope has left behind!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still the world are busy, blowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Every one, some empty ball;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So the seeds of mischief sowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where, to burst, the bubbles fall.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor for self alone to gather,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is our evil harvest found;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft, with pipe and cup, we rather<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Step upon our neighbor’s ground.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus, amusing one another,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While the glistening playthings rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We may doom a friend or brother<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To a life of care and sighs.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Do you doubt my simple story?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I can point a thousand ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where this bubble-making glory<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has in darkness hid its rays!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet we ’ll spare a slight confusion<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Caused the world by giving names;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since a right to some delusion<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Every one from nature claims!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="INFANT_FAITH" id="INFANT_FAITH">INFANT FAITH.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Radiant</span> with his spirit’s light<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was the little beauteous child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sporting round a fountain bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Playing through the flowerets wild.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where they grow he lightly stepped,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cautious not a leaf to crush;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then about the fount he leaped,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shouting at its merry gush.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While the sparkling waters welled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Laughing as they bubbled up,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In his lily hands he held,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Closely clasped, a silver cup.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now he put it forth to fill;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then he bore it to the flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through his fingers there to spill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What it held, in mimic showers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Open, pretty buds,” said he,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“Open to the air and sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, to-morrow I may see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What my rain to-day has done.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Yes, you will, you will, I know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the drink I give you now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burst your little cups, and blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When I’m gone, and can’t tell how!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Oh! I wish I could but see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How God’s finger touches you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When your sides unclasp, and free,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let your leaves and odors through.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I would watch you all the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor in darkness be afraid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only once to see aright<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How a beauteous flower is made.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Now remember! I shall come<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the morning from my bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here to find among you some<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With your brightest colors spread!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To his buds he hastened out,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At the dewy morning hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crying, with a joyous shout,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“God has made of each a flower!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Precious must the ready faith<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the little children be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the sight of Him, who saith,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“Suffer them to come to me.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Answered, by the smile of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is the infant’s offering found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though “a cup of water given,”<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Even to the thirsty ground.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="PATTY_PROUD" id="PATTY_PROUD">PATTY PROUD.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> figure before you is Miss Patty Proud:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her feelings are lowery, her frown like a cloud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because proud Miss Patty can hardly endure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To come near the lowly abode of the poor.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She fears the plain floor of the humble will spoil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her silk shoes and hose, and her skirt-bottom soil;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so she goes winching; and holds up her dress<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So high, it were well if her heels would show less.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when she walks through the fine streets of the town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She puts on fine airs, and displays her rich gown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till some, whom she passes, will think of the bird<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Renowned for gay feathers, whose name you have heard.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In thought she is trifling—in manner as vain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As that silly fowl, taking pride in his train;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And none, who have marked her, will need to be told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she has a heart hard, and haughty, and cold.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I saw, when she met some poor children one day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who asked her for alms, she turned frowning away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And told them, “Poor people must work, to be fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And not trouble ladies, to help them to bread.”<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And just as the sad little mendicants said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their mother was dying, their father was dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She entered a store, with a smooth, smiling face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lay out her purse in gay ribbons and lace.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I saw her curl up her sour lip in disdain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because Ellen Pitiful picked up the cane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A feeble old man had let fall in the sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And placed it again in his tremulous hand.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But little does haughty Miss Patty suppose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all, whom she visits, that any one knows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How stern she can look, when she ’s out of their sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fret at the servants, if all is not right.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At home, she ’s unyielding, and sullen, and cross:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her friends, when she ’s absent, esteem it no loss;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some, where she visits, in secret confess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they love her no more, though they dread her much less.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The truth is, Miss Patty, when young, never tried<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To govern her temper, or conquer her pride.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The passions, unchecked in the heart of the child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like weeds in a garden neglected, ran wild.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They grew with her growth, with her strength became strong:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her head, not then righted, has ever been wrong;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And so she would never submit to be told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of faults, by long habit made stubborn and bold.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, among all my young friends, is there one,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fair little girl is there under the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who ’d rise to a woman, and have it allowed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she is a likeness of Miss <span class="smcap">Patty Proud</span>?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="I_CAUGHT_A_BIRD" id="I_CAUGHT_A_BIRD">I CAUGHT A BIRD.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I caught</span> a bird: She flitted by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So near my window lifted high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She softly ventured in, to spy<br /></span> +<span class="i4">What I might be about:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, a little wildered thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like many a one without a wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She fluttered, struck, and seemed to sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“Alas! I can’t get out.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She saw her kindred on the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before her, sporting light and free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But felt a power, she could not see,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Repel and hold her back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In vain her beak, and breast, and feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the crystal pane were beat:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She could not break the clear deceit,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Nor find her airy track.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The pretty wanderer then I took;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And felt her frame with terror shook:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She gave the sad and piteous look<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of helplessness and fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till quick I spread my hand, to show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I caught her but to let her go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I, perhaps, may never know<br /></span> +<span class="i4">A dearer moment here.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She piped a short and sweet adieu,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As, humming on the air, she threw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her brilliant, buoyant wing, and flew<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Away from fear and me:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, ere the hour of setting sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That little constant, grateful one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Returning, had her hymn begun<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In our old rustling tree.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now do not take the fatal aim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My tender bird to kill, or maim;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor let the fatal shot proclaim<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Her anguish, or her fall!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, would you know the bird I mean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She is the first that will be seen—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The last—and every one between:<br /></span> +<span class="i4">She represents them all!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_FLOWER_OF_SHELLS_AND_SILVER_WIRE" id="THE_FLOWER_OF_SHELLS_AND_SILVER_WIRE">THE FLOWER OF SHELLS AND SILVER WIRE.</a></h3> + +<p class="center">TO ——.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I sought</span> a meet gift, it might please thee to wear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among the soft locks of thy fine silken hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And asked the two deeps for some treasure or gem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By nature first formed and imbosomed in them.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mine gave me threads of its fine silver ore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ocean cast up its smooth shells to the shore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of these I combined the free offering, that now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bring, and would set o’er thy fair, peaceful brow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shells, thou wilt see, are unsullied and white;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silver is modest, and precious, and bright,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A type! thy quick fancy will readily see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet thou ’lt not confess what its meaning may be.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And let the gift sometimes recall to thy mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The friend, by whose hand its pure parts were combined;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, oftener, that Friend, in whose hand was the skill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The earth and the seas with their treasures to fill!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_LITTLE_BLIND_BOY" id="THE_LITTLE_BLIND_BOY">THE LITTLE BLIND BOY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">O tell</span> me the form of the soft summer air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That tosses so gently the curls of my hair!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It breathes on my lip, and it fans my warm cheek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But gives me no answer, though often I speak:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I feel it play o’er me, refreshing and light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet cannot touch it, because I ’ve no sight!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And music—what is it? and where does it dwell?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sink, and I mount, with its cadence and swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While thrilled to my heart, with its deep-going strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till pleasure excessive seems turning to pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, what the bright colors of music may be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will any one tell me? for I cannot see.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The odors of flowers, that are hovering nigh—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What are they?—on what kind of wings do they fly?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are not they sweet angels, who come to delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A poor little boy, that knows nothing of sight?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun, moon and stars never enter my mind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O tell me what light is, because I am blind!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SALE_OF_THE_WATER-LILY" id="THE_SALE_OF_THE_WATER-LILY">THE SALE OF THE WATER-LILY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">There</span> stood upon the broad high-road,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That o’er a moorland lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A widow’s low and lone abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And close beside the way.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Upon its face the dwelling bore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The signs of times within,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That seemed to say but little more<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than, “<em>Better days have been!</em>”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behind it was the sedgy fen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With alder, brake, and brush;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And less to serve the wants of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than of the jay and thrush.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And these would sometimes come, and cheer<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The widow with a song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To let her feel a neighbor near,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wing an hour along.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A pond, supplied by hidden springs,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With lilies bordered round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was found among the richest things,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That blessed the widow’s ground.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She had, besides, a gentle brook,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That wound the meadow through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which from the pond its being took,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And had its treasures too.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her eldest orphan was a son;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For, children she had three;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She called him, though a little one,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her hope for days to be.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And well he might be reckoned so,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If, from the tender shoot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know the way the branch will grow;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, by the flower, the fruit.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His tongue was true, his mind was bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His temper smooth and mild:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He was—the parent’s chief delight—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A good and pleasant child.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ’d gather chips and sticks of wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The winter fire to make;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And help his mother dress their food,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or tend the baking cake.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In summer time he ’d kindly lead<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His little sisters out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pick wild berries on the mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And fish the brook for trout.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He stirred his thoughts for ways to earn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some little gain; and hence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Contrived the silver pond to turn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In part, to silver pence.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He found the lilies blooming there<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So spicy sweet to smell,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And to the eye so pure and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He plucked them up to sell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He could not to the market go:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He had too young a head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The distant city’s ways to know;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The route he could not tread.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, when the coming coach-wheels rolled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To pass his humble cot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His bunch of lilies to be sold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was ready on the spot.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ’d stand beside the way, and hold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His treasures up to show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That looked like yellow stars of gold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Just set in leaves of snow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“O buy my lilies!” he would say;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“You ’ll find them new and sweet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fresh from out the pond are they,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I have n’t dried my feet!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then he showed the dust that clung<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon his garment’s hem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where late the water-drops had hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When he had gathered them.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And while the carriage checked its pace,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To take the lilies in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His artless orphan tongue and face<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some bright return would win.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For many a noble stranger’s hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With open purse, was seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cast a coin upon the sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or on the sloping green.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And many a smiling lady threw<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The child a silver piece;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus, as fast as lilies grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He saw his wealth increase.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While little more—and little more,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was gathered by their sale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His widowed mother’s frugal store<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would never wholly fail.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For He, who made, and feeds the bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her little children fed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He knew her trust: her cry he heard;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And answered it with bread.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thus, protected by the Power,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who made the lily fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her orphans, like the meadow flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Grew up in beauty there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her son, the good and prudent boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who wisely thus began,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was long the aged widow’s joy;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lived an honored man.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He had a ship, for which he chose<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“The <span class="smcap">Lily</span>” as a name,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To keep in memory whence he rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And how his fortune came.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He had a lily carved and set,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her emblem, on her stem;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she was called, by all she met,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A beauteous ocean gem.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She bore sweet spices, treasures bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, on the waters wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her sails, as lily-leaves, were white:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her name was well applied.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her feeling owner never spurned<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The faces of the poor;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And found that all he gave returned<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In blessing rich and sure.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The God, who, by the lily-pond,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had drawn his heart above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In after life preserved the bond<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of grateful, holy love.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SILVER_BIRDSNEST" id="THE_SILVER_BIRDSNEST">THE SILVER BIRDSNEST.</a></h3> + +<div class="small"> + +<p>We were shown a beautiful specimen of the ingenuity of birds, a +few days since, by Dr. Cook, of this borough. It was a birdsnest +made entirely of silver wires, beautifully woven together. The +nest was found on a sycamore tree, on the Condorus, by Dr. Francis +Beard, of York county. It was the nest of a hanging-bird; and the +material was probably obtained from a soldier’s epaulet, which it had +found.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Westchester Village Record.</span> +</p> + +<p><em>Spring of 1838.</em></p> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">A stranded</span> soldier’s epaulet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The waters cast ashore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little winged rover met,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And eyed it o’er and o’er.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silver bright so pleased her sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On that lone, idle vest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She knew not why she should deny<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Herself a silver nest.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shining wire she pecked and twirled;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then bore it to her bough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, on a flowery twig ’t was curled—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bird can show you how:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, when enough of that bright stuff<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cunning builder bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her house to make, she would not take,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor did she covet more.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when the little artisan,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While neither pride nor guilt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had entered in her pretty plan,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her resting-place had built;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +<span class="i0">With here and there a plume to spare,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">About her own light form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of these, inlaid with skill, she made<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A lining soft and warm.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, do you think the tender brood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She fondled there, and fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were prouder, when they understood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sheen about their bed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do you suppose they ever rose<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of higher powers possessed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because they knew they peeped and grew<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Within a silver nest?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_QUAKER_FLOWER" id="THE_QUAKER_FLOWER">THE QUAKER FLOWER.</a></h3> + +<p class="small likeh3">A TRIFOLIUM FROM THE GRAVE OF PENN.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I have</span> a little Quaker flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hath a kind of spirit power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hold me captive, hour by hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In pleasant musing lost;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T was plucked for me in distant land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by another’s friendly hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From turf where I may never stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Then yon wild ocean crossed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A modest foreigner it came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing a sweet, but humble name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet worthy of a glorious fame<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Among the sons of men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For O the pretty stranger grew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It drank the ether and the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from light received its hue<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Upon the grave of <span class="smcap">Penn</span>!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It sprang from out that hallowed ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unclosed its eye, and smiled around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the verdure of the mound,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where <span class="smcap">William</span>’s ashes rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where low the dust in quiet lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of him, among the good and wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On earth, so meek, and in the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i4">So high among the blest.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And had my flower a living root,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or seed wherefrom a germ might shoot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one young plant to be the fruit<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of that small vital part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair <span class="smcap">Penn-Sylvania</span>, it should be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My friendly offering made to thee—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set, to thy father’s memory,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">On thy kind Quaker heart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, ah! my precious flower is dead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The snow-white sheet beneath its head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on its tender bosom spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Shows that its life is o’er:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though each floweret of the gem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every leaf, is on the stem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cannot spare thee one of them,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Because there ’ll grow no more.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I therefore bid my fancy weave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This simple wreath, which thou ’lt receive<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In lieu thereof; and thence believe<br /></span> +<span class="i4">My fervent wish to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Heaven, to overflowing still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With purest bliss thy cup may fill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And guard thee safe from every ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whilst thou rememberest me!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_HUMMING-BIRDS_ANGER" id="THE_HUMMING-BIRDS_ANGER">THE HUMMING-BIRD’S ANGER.</a></h3> + +<div class="small"> + +<p>“Small as the humming-bird is, it has great courage and violent +passions. If it find a flower that has been deprived of its honey, it +will pluck it off, throw it on the ground, and sometimes tear it to +pieces.”</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Buffon.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">On</span> light little wings, as the humming-birds fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With plumes many-hued as the bow of the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Suspended in ether, they shine in the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As jewels of nature, high-finished and bright.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their delicate forms are so buoyant and small,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They hang o’er the flowers, as too airy to fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upborne on their beautiful pinions, that seem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like glittering vapor, or parts of a dream.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The humming-bird feeds upon honey, and so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of course, ’t is a sweet little creature, you know:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sweet little creatures have sometimes, they say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A great deal that ’s bitter or sour to betray.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And often the humming-bird’s delicate breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is found of a very high temper possessed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such essence of anger within it is pent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T would burst, did no safety-valve give it a vent.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Displeased, it will seem a bright vial of wrath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Uncorked by its heat the offender to scath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And taking occasion to let off its ire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is startling to witness how high it will fire.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A humming-bird once o’er a trumpet-flower hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And darted that sharp little member, the tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At once through the tube to its cell for the sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It felt, at the bottom, most certain to meet.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, finding that some other child of the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rifle the store, had already been there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no drop of honey for her to draw up,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her vengeance was poured on the destitute cup.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She flew in a passion that heightened her power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, cuffing and shaking the innocent flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its tender corolla in shred after shred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hastily stripped, then she snapped off its head.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A delicate ruin on earth as it lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bright little fury went humming away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gossamer softness, and fair to the eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like some living brilliant just dropped from the sky.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And since, when that curious bird I behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arrayed in rich colors, and dusted with gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cannot but think of the wrath and the spite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She has in reserve, though they ’re kept out of sight.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These two-footed, beautiful, passionate things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If plumeless or plumy, without or with wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should go to the glass, or the painter, and sit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When anger is just at the height of its fit.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SABBATH" id="THE_SABBATH">THE SABBATH.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Day</span> of days, the dearest, best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hallowed by Jehovah’s rest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When his six-days’ work was done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holy rose the seventh sun.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When creation’s pillars stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Lord pronounced them good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Morning stars together sang—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven with Sabbath praises rang.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Earth in pristine beauty shone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a gem, before his throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he marked thee, as his claim—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he sealed thee with his name.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Choice of God, thou blessed day!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At thy dawn the grave gave way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the power of him within,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who had, sinless, bled for sin.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thine the radiance to illume<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First, for man, the dismal tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When its bars their weakness owned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There revealing death dethroned.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the Sun of righteousness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose, a darkened world to bless,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bringing up from mortal night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immortality and light.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Day of glory! day of power!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sacred be thine ev’ry hour!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Emblem, earnest of the rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That remaineth for the blest!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When at last it shall appear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How they loved and kept thee here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a temple in the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair, eternal, they shall rise.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not a sigh of grief or care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall mingle with their praises there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then their sweet reward shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An eternity of thee.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_DEPARTING_SPIRIT" id="THE_DEPARTING_SPIRIT">THE DEPARTING SPIRIT.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hush!</span> let the sigh in escaping be stopped:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be the dim chamber all silently trod!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let not the tear, that is rounded, be dropt!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Oh! ’t is a spirit returning to God!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Angels are softly untwining the strings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Loosing its ties to the beautiful clay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo! they have lifted their hovering wings:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Joyous they waft her in triumph away!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sorrow not now, o’er the spiritless form,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While on its features death’s lilies unfold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Break not the heart for another so warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stopt in its pulse by a finger so cold.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Time ne’er shall whiten a lock of that hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Silken and full, round the forehead, that shines.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Age shall not come, nor the finger of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Marking that brow with their deep-going lines.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ne’er will those lips be unsealed by the sigh:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Anguish will never that bosom invade:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tears roll no more from that calm sleeping eye:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Peace o’er the clay her smooth mantle has laid.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Plant a young flower, in beauty to spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tender and pure, where the dust shall repose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look then from earth, whence the bright spirit fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Up, where to gladness and glory it rose.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="SONNET" id="SONNET">SONNET.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Spare</span>, ruthless fowler, spare<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That harmless robin’s breast!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its downy vesture do not tear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But leave the life-blood circling there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Again to warm her nest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she is hastening home with food<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Provided for her callow brood.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her tender offspring see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were now thy shot to fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left, as thy helpless babes would be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Reft of their mother and of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To moan, and pine, and die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let her pass unhurt along;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she will thank thee with a song.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="FATHER_HEAR" id="FATHER_HEAR">FATHER, HEAR!</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Thou</span>, whose power assumes the form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, of this wild wintry storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let it still in mercy be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shown upon the raging sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O! for him, who tosses there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father, hear this midnight prayer!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Solemn darkness shrouds the world;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While, with mighty wings unfurled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus the winds in fury sweep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er the land, and o’er the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, whose thought from death can save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guard the life that ’s on the wave!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cold and dreary is the night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snow-clouds wrap the beacon-light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rocks and ices, like a host<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Armed for battle, bar the coast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the coming bark appear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guide her! save her! Father, hear!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_PILGRIMS_WAY_SONG" id="THE_PILGRIMS_WAY_SONG">THE PILGRIM’S WAY SONG.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I ’m</span> bound to the house of my Father;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O draw not my feet from the way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor stop me these wild flowers to gather!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They droop at my touch, and decay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think of the flowers, that are blooming<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In beauty unfading above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wings of the angels perfuming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who fly down on errands of love.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of earth’s shallow waters the drinking<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is powerless my thirst to allay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their taste is of tears, while we ’re sinking<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beside them, where quicksands betray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I long, from that fount ever-living,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That flows by my Father’s own door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With waters so sweet and life-giving,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To drink, and to thirst never more.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The gold of his bright, happy dwelling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Makes all lower gold to look dim;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its treasures, all treasures excelling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shine forth to allure me to Him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pearls of this world while I ’m treading<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In dust, where as pebbles they lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I seek the rich pearl, that is shedding<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its lustre so pure from on high.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For pains my torn spirit is feeling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No balsam from earth it receives:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I go to the tree, that hath healing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To drop on my wounds from its leaves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A child that is weary with roaming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Returning in gladness to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A home and a parent, I ’m coming—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My Father, I hasten to thee!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_RISING_MONUMENT" id="THE_RISING_MONUMENT">THE RISING MONUMENT.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Rise</span> in thy solemn grandeur, calm and slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As well befits thy purpose and thy place:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great Speaker! rise, not suddenly, to show<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The earth forever sacred at thy base.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strong as the rocky frame-work of the globe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Proportioned fair, in altitude sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With freedom’s glory round thee as a robe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rise gently—then defy the power of time.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To future ages, from thy lofty site,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Speak in thy mighty eloquence, and tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That where thou art, on Bunker’s hallowed height,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our <span class="smcap">Warren</span> and his valiant brethren fell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Say, it was here the vital current flowed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Purpling the turf, amid the mortal strife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For man’s great birthright, from the breasts, that glowed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With love of country, more than love of life.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou hast thy growth of blood, that, gushing warm<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From patriot bosoms, set their spirits free:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All, who behold, shall venerate thy form,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bow before thy genius, <span class="smcap">Liberty</span>.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here fell the hero and his brave compeers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who fought and died to break a people’s chain:<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The place is sacred to Columbia’s tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Poured o’er the victims for a nation slain.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet from her starry brow a glory streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Turning to gems those holy drops of grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As after evening showers, the morn’s clear beams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Show diamonds hung on grass, and flower and leaf.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Upright and firm, as were the patriot souls,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That from thy native spot arose to God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand thou and hold, long as our planet rolls,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This last high place by Freedom’s martyrs trod.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let thy majestic shadow walk the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Calm as the sun, and constant as his light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the moon, amid the dews, be found<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sentinel, who guards it through the night.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And may the air around thee ever be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To heaven-born Liberty as vital breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, like the breeze that sweeps the Upas tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To Bondage and Oppression certain death!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A beauteous prospect spreads for thy survey;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">City and dome, and spire look up to thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The solemn forest and the mountains gray<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stand distant to salute thy majesty.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And ocean, in his numbers deep and strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While the bright shore beneath thy ken he laves,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Will sing to thee an everlasting song<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of freedom, with his never-conquered waves.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Rise then, and stand unshaken, till the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Above thee are about to pass away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, when the dead around thee are to rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Melt in the burning splendors of the day!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For then will He, “whose right it is to reign,”<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who hath on earth a kingdom pure to save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come with his angels, calling up the slain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To freedom, and annihilate the grave.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="A_NAME_IN_THE_SAND" id="A_NAME_IN_THE_SAND">A NAME IN THE SAND.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Alone</span> I walked the ocean strand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pearly shell was in my hand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stooped, and wrote upon the sand<br /></span> +<span class="i4">My name—the year—the day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As onward from the spot I passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One lingering look behind I cast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wave came rolling high and fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And washed my lines away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And so, methought, ’t will shortly be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With every mark on earth from me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wave of dark oblivion’s sea<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Will sweep across the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where I have trod the sandy shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of time, and been to be no more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of me—my day—the name I bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To leave nor track, nor trace.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, with Him, who counts the sands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holds the waters in his hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know a lasting record stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Inscribed against my name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all, this mortal part has wrought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all, this thinking soul has thought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from these fleeting moments caught<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For glory, or for shame.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_CHILD_OF_A_YEAR_AND_A_DAY" id="THE_CHILD_OF_A_YEAR_AND_A_DAY">THE CHILD OF A YEAR AND A DAY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">To</span> grief the night-hours keeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A mournful mother lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon her pillow, weeping—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her babe had passed away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When she had clasped her treasure<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A year and yet a day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of time ’t was all its measure—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T was gone, like morning’s ray!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The jewel, Heaven had shown her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of worth surpassing gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was lent her, by its Owner—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T was never earth’s to hold.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, fondly hovering o’er her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A bright young angel hung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And warm the love it bore her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sweet the song it sung:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“O mother, why this weeping?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let all thy sorrow cease:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My infant form is sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where nought can break its peace.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And he, who once was blessing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such little children here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My spirit now possessing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will hold me ever dear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I never knew the dreading<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of death’s all-conquering blow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My mortal raiment shedding,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I rose above the foe.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Where sickness cannot pain me—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where comes nor grief nor night—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sin shall never stain me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I dwell, a child of light.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“While many a pilgrim hoary<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Treads long earth’s weary way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have eternal glory<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For one short year and day.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet that sweet angel singing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its mother could not hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For grief her heart was wringing—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She ’d but a mortal ear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She could not see the beaming<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of his celestial crown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For fast her tears were streaming;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her soul to dust bowed down.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A voice from heaven then falling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In soothing tones to her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As of a Father, calling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Revealed the Comforter.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, lifting up her lowly<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sorrow-laden eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She saw the King all holy<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon the throne Most High.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where shining hosts were pouring<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their praises forth to Him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She saw her child adoring,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amid the Seraphim.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BELIEVERS_MOUNTAINS" id="THE_BELIEVERS_MOUNTAINS">THE BELIEVER’S MOUNTAINS.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Not</span> to the mount, where fire and smoke<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Jehovah’s face concealed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When loud to wandering man he spoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To make his law revealed—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not to the awful splendor there<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can turn my fearful eye:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear its thunderings, and to dare<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its lightnings, were to die.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not on the mount where Moses stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The promised land to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Across the waves of Jordan’s flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is yet the place for me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My spirit could not bear to take<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That fair and glorious view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor dare her wondrous launch to make,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To try the waters through.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not to the mount where Christ appeared<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At once so heavenly bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While they, who heard the Father, feared,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And fell before the light—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not there, my Saviour ever nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Do I his footsteps trace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His closer followers far, than I,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Attain that higher place.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, to the mount without a name,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where Jesus sat and taught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I daily would assert my claim,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To share the bread he brought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His words before that multitude<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dropt to his chosen few,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are manna for my morning food,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My soul’s sweet evening dew.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If to Temptation’s mount I go,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That mount <em>exceeding high</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Lord, again rebuke our foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bid the tempter fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No kingdom may I seek, but thine;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And let my glory be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A light, reflected pure from thine—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My portion, life with thee!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oft to the mount of midnight shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of solitude and prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascend, my soul, be not afraid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy Guide to follow there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The height and stillness of the scene,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When thou that path hast trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forbids this world to rush between<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A spirit and her God.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mount whereon my Saviour stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And o’er the city wept—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where fell his wo-wrung drops of blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While his disciples slept—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +<span class="i0">There may I go, yet not to sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till Jesus be betrayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, as he went, to pray and weep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O’er sufferings sin hath made.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And to the solemn, shuddering mount,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where Christ received the cup<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of death, to offer us a fount<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of life, must I go up.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I must look upon his wo,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On that empurpled tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To learn how vast a debt I owe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By what he paid for me.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thence to the mount of Galilee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May I the way pursue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With joy my risen Lord to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere he ascends from view.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For lo! the heavens their gates unfold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To take their coming King:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His angels harp on strings of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And “Hallelujah!” sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now on Mount Zion may I seek<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My shield—my strong, high tower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence, though here so dark and weak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be clothed with light and power.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then at that holy mountain’s top,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My soul, no more to roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unfurl thy wings—thine ashes drop;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And gain thy glorious home.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_NIGHT_AND_THE_MORNING" id="THE_NIGHT_AND_THE_MORNING">THE NIGHT AND THE MORNING.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">A solemn</span> night is o’er Jerusalem;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nature astonished, shrouds herself in gloom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he, who was the babe of Bethlehem,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is now a victim slain, and in the tomb!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The blood, which started with the agony<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That in the garden forced his swelling veins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In crimson streams has poured on Calvary;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A rocky cavern holds his pale remains.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He walked with men, serene in holiness,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The meek, the merciful, through taunts and strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The front of pride he met with lowliness,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bowed to death to lift his foes to life.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fast as their sins grew bold and multiplied,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His bitter cup was filling to the brim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here doth he lie, the pale, the crucified,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With damps and shadows gathered over him.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dismal night moves on but heavily,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While they, who came the sepulchre to keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bristling spears, the Roman soldiery,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would fain resign their glittering arms for sleep.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet they must wake or die; the sentinel<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Must keep his constant vigils round the spot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where he shall find the watch of Israel:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The life, the spirit moves, and heeds him not.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Within the grave, that power victorious<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O’er death and darkness, far from mortal sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath wrought the body bright and glorious<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For resurrection by the morning light.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And lo! the shades of night are vanishing;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The guard behold, as comes the dawning day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her dubious gloom and dimness banishing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The stone that barred the tomb is rolled away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, where ’s the form that in the drapery,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which wraps the dead, lay, spiritless and cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within the vault so still and shadowy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That, as a prison-guard, they came to hold?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That form is gone; its cast-off covering,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sad habiliments of death, are here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With burial odors round them hovering,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And white-robed angels calmly sitting near.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, see the garden, fair and flowering,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where new-born lilies worship from their stalks;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And boughs with blossoms bend, embowering<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dewy pathway! there the Saviour walks.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The guilty city still is slumbering,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While he is risen from the broken tomb;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one his vines and fruit trees numbering,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He breathes the incense of their opening bloom.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The moon, now fading in the occident,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is not so mild, so heavenly fair as he.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun, just rising in the orient,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath less of glory than in him we see.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nature, that, for his death and burial,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath put on darkness, as a mourning weed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arrayed in light as for a festival,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Proclaims afar, “The Lord is risen indeed!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="I_SHALL_BE_SATISFIED" id="I_SHALL_BE_SATISFIED">I SHALL BE SATISFIED.</a></h3> + +<p class="small likeh3">“I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">May</span> I in thy likeness, my Saviour, awake,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And rise, a fair image of thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then I shall be satisfied, when I can break<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This prison of clay, and be free.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Can I but come forth to eternity’s light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With thy perfect features to shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In raiment unsullied from time’s dreary night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What honor and joy will be mine!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yes, I shall be satisfied then to have cast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The shadows of nature all by—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, darkness and dust from the dull eyelid past,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My soul sees with full-opened eye.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How fain would I know the great morn drawing near,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When earth’s dreamy visions shall fade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I in thy semblance indeed may appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And stand in thy beauty arrayed!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To see thee in glory, O Lord, as thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From this mortal, perishing clay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My spirit immortal, in peace would depart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, joyous, mount up her bright way.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When on thine own image in me thou hast smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In thy holy mansion, and when<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy fatherly arms have encircled thy child,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O I shall be satisfied then!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_PENITENTIAL_TEAR" id="THE_PENITENTIAL_TEAR">THE PENITENTIAL TEAR.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Thou</span> trembling, pure, and holy thing!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What skill from ocean’s depths can bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or toil from out the mine—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What monarch in his diadem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or glittering garb, produce a gem,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whose brightness equals thine?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy source is deeper than the caves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of riven rock, or opening waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Invisible as air:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, though the angel throng above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold thee with delight and love,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">They ne’er can have thee there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor change, nor age thy sheen can dim;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou ’rt now unstained as when with him,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Who dared, in olden time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice his dear, suffering Lord deny;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, melted at the Saviour’s eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And paid thee for his crime.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Called from the treasures of the soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By power divine, when thou dost roll<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Forth from the mourner’s eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy wearer thou dost then proclaim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heir of life, who has his name<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Writ in the Book on high.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou art a pearl, that all may own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when thy matchless worth is known<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To those, who wear thee here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They will be changed, and shall behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shining gates of heaven unfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Bright Penitential Tear!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="TEACHINGS_OF_GOD" id="TEACHINGS_OF_GOD">TEACHINGS OF GOD.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">He</span> reigns on high, a glorious King,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In ocean, earth, and air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He moves and governs every thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For God is every where.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The waters at his bidding flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mountain and its flower<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their majesty and beauty show,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As traces of his power.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The lilies by the meadow rills<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are leaning on his hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so the cedar of the hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The palm and olive stand.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He formed the birds, that sport along<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On light and brilliant wing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tuned them with the voice of song<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And joy his praise to sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This earth is ours, so rich and fair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From him, who made it thus—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who sends his angels down with care<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To minister to us.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The rainbow, with its beauteous dies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A pledge to man, is lent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By him, who spreads the shining skies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Around him, “as a tent.”<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The heavens, my child, are full of him!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yon radiant sun above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is but an image, cold and dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of his great power and love.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He placed that glorious orb on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In splendor there to roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To warm the world, to light the eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He lights and warms the soul.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And lest the night with sable shade<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That azure vault should mar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He moved his finger there, and made,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At every touch, a star.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With these the moon, his beaming gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here lets her lustre fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our thoughts to win, our hearts to lift<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To him, who gave them all.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And he is ours—that Holy One,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our Father, Guide, and Friend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In ways untravelled by the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In love that ne’er shall end.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is sweet to worship him below,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With his approving eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mark the way, our spirits go<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To seek his face on high.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_HERALDS_CRY_IN_THE_DESERT" id="THE_HERALDS_CRY_IN_THE_DESERT">THE HERALD’S CRY IN THE DESERT.</a></h3> + +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote"> +<p>“He was not that Light; but was sent to bear witness of that +Light.”</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">St. John</span> i. 8. +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Awake</span>, O ye nations, and, shaking<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The slumber of death from your eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold the fair morn in its breaking,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The <span class="smcap">Sun</span> of all glory arise.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He comes, mist and dimness dispelling;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The shadows and clouds flee away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ho! all, that in darkness are dwelling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Spring up, and rejoice in the day!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye dying, life’s waters revealing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He ’ll show you to fountain and streams:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye wounded, for you he brings healing;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come out and repose in his beams.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, all ye disconsolate, hailing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Your King in his beauty and might;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His raiment mount Ebal is veiling;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mount Gerizim shines with his light.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O praise him, ye weary, in wonder<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To feel your hard burdens unbound!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye captives, your bars fall asunder;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With shoutings leap forth at the sound.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your names on his breastplate he ’s wearing;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They ’re set as the seal of his ring;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye nations, your highways preparing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Receive, and be glad in your King!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="OUR_FATHERS_WELL" id="OUR_FATHERS_WELL">OUR FATHER’S WELL.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Come</span>, let ’s go back, my brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, by our father’s well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sit down beside each other,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Life’s little dreams to tell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For there we played together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In childhood’s sunny hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before life’s stormy weather<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had killed its morning flowers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And since no draught we ’ve tasted,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its weary journey through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As we so far have hasted,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like that our father drew;<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I feel, as at a mountain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I cannot pass nor climb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till from that distant fountain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I drink, as in my prime.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My spirit’s longing, thirsting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No waters else can quell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart seems near to bursting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To reach that good old well.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though all be changed around it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And though so changed are we,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just where our father found it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That pure well spring will be.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In earth, when deeply going,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He reached and smote the rock;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He set its fount to flowing—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It opened at his knock.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The way, he smoothed and stoned it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A close, round, shadowy cell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whoever since has owned it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It is our father’s well!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His prattling son and daughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With each an infant’s cup,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We waited for the water,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His steady hand drew up.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When we had paused and listened,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till down the bucket dashed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O how it, rising, glistened,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to the sunlight flashed!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And since that moment, never<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has that cool deep been dry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its fount is living ever,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While man and seasons die.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Around its mouth is growing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The moss of many a year;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But from its heart is flowing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The water sweet and clear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fond memory near it lingers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, like a happy child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She plucks, with busy fingers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wreathes the roses wild.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet many a lip, whose burning<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its limpid drops allayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has since, to ashes turning,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Been veiled in silent shade.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still we are here, and telling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">About our infant play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where that free spring is welling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So true, and far away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But O! the change, my brother!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our father’s head is hoar;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tender name of mother<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is ours to call no more.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, around thee gather<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such little ones as we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were then, beside our father,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And look to theirs in thee.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While fast our years are wasting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their numbers none can tell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So let us hence be hasting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To find our Father’s well.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, we will speed us thither,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And from its mossy brink,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To flowers that ne’er shall wither<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Look up to heaven and drink.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They spring beside the waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our Father there will give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To all his sons and daughters,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where they shall drink and live.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_MOTHERS_DREAM" id="THE_MOTHERS_DREAM">THE MOTHER’S DREAM.</a></h3> + +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote"> +<p class="center-right">“And I will give him the morning star.”</p> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> ii. 28. +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Methought</span>, once more to my wishful eye<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My beautiful boy had come:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My sorrow was gone, my cheek was dry,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And gladness around my home.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I saw the form of my dear, lost child!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All kindled with life he came;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he spake in his own sweet voice, and smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As soon as I called his name.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The garb he wore looked heavenly white,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the feathery snow comes down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And warm, as it shone in the softened light<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That fell from his dazzling crown.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His eye was bright with a joy serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His cheek with a deathless bloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That only the eye of my soul hath seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When looking beyond the tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The odors of flowers, from the thornless land<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where we deem that our blest ones are,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seemed borne in his skirts; and his soft right hand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was holding a radiant star.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His feet, unshod, looked tender and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the lily’s opening bell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half veiled in a cloud of glory, as there<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Around him, in folds, it fell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I asked him how he was clothed anew—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who circled his head with light—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whence he returned to meet my view<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So calm and heavenly bright.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I asked him where he had been so long<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Away from his mother’s care—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again to sing me his infant song,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to kneel by my side in prayer.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He said, “Sweet mother, the song I sing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is not for an earthly ear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I touch the harp with a golden string,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the hosts of heaven to hear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“It was but a gently fleeting breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That severed thy child from thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fearful shadow, in time, called Death,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath ministered life to me.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“My voice in an angel choir I lift;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And high are the notes we raise:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hold the sign of a priceless gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the Giver, who hath our praise.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“‘The bright and the morning star’ is he,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who bringeth eternal day!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, mother, he giveth himself to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To lighten thine earthly way.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The race is short to a peaceful goal,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And He is never afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who saith of the wise, untiring soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">‘I will give him the morning star!’<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Thy measure of care for me was filled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And pure to its crystal top;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Faith, with a steady eye, distilled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And numbered every drop.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“While thou wast teaching my lips to move,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my heart to rise in prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I learned the way to a world above;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The home of thy child is there!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The secret prayers, thou didst make for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That only thy God hath known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arose, like sweet incense, holy and free,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And gathered around his throne.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“My robe was filled with the perfume sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To shed upon this world’s air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I joyful knelt, at my Saviour’s feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the glorious crown I wear.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“In that bright, blissful world of ours,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The waters of life I drink:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold my feet, as they ’ve pressed the flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That grow by the fountain’s brink!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“No thorn is hidden to wound me there;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There ’s nothing of chill, or blight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or sighing to blend with the balmy air—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No sorrow—no pain—no night!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“No <em>parting</em>?” I asked, with a burst of joy;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the lovely illusion broke!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My rapture had banished my beauteous boy—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To a shadowy void I spoke.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, O! that <span class="smcap">STAR</span> of the morn still beams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With light to direct my feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, when I have done with my earthly dreams,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mother and child may meet.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_WAR-SPIRIT_ON_BUNKERS_HEIGHT" id="THE_WAR-SPIRIT_ON_BUNKERS_HEIGHT">THE WAR-SPIRIT ON BUNKER’S HEIGHT.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> sun walked the skies in the splendor of June,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er earth full of promise, and air full of tune;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The broad azure streams calmly rolled to the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose waves on its breast stirred like babes in their sleep.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The turf heaved its green to the white vestured flock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fed, or reposed in the shade of the rock;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The birds sang their songs by their nests in the bowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the bee hummed with sweets from the fresh opened flowers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The humming-bird glittered, and whirred o’er the cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where her nectar was stored, from the hill to the dell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Mid the bloom and the perfume, that passed on the breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the rose, and the vine, and the fruit-bearing trees.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It seemed like a gala, when Nature, arrayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In festival robes, with her treasures displayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reflected the smile of her Maker above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And offered up hymns of her thanksgiving love.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, in the bosom of man there were fires<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce, quenchless and fearful—consuming desires<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For right unpossessed, and for lawless domain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That burned to the soul, and that flamed to the brain.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the streets there was clanging and gleaming of arms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the dwellings, resolve, preparation, alarms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the eye of the wife, mother, sister, a tear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the face of their soldier, no semblance of fear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The patriot chieftain had marked out his ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hold, or to fall, if his foe passed the bound:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now was the hero to close in the strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For death as a bondman, or freedom with life.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The war-spirit hovered, and frowned on the height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His eye flashing lightning—his wings shedding night!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From his wide fiery nostrils rolled volumes of smoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the rocks roared afar, as in thunder he spoke.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At his dread shock of nature, the lamb from its play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bee and the bird, in affright fled away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The branch, flower, and grass, felt the crush and the scath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the winds passing by, snuffed the heat of his wrath.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With blood, that, in torrents, he poured down like rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He drenched the green turf, that he strewed with the slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the eminence groaned with the carnage it bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And its heart heaved and shuddered at drinking the gore.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While the breath of the war-spirit scented the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rivers looked wild in reflecting his glare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ocean’s cold bosom was torn, as he gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flap of his pinion to trouble its wave.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The village besieged, wrapped in flames from his breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looked up to the hill, where he revelled with death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swelled with the essence of life he had shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sweeten their cup, and the banquet to spread.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O War-spirit! War-spirit, when didst thou bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such trophies of beauty before the pale king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since walking on Gilboa’s height, in thy power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Israel’s valiant to mow down the flower?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mourn, wail, O ye people! and spread wide the pall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose deep sable fringe down the hill-sides shall fall!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your brethren’s warm blood cries aloud from the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hosts, like Philistia’s, in triumph surround.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The lovely, the pleasant have perished! Alas!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where they fell may there hence be no dew on the grass!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let a monument there, towards the heavens rear its head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From a base, that shall cover the spot where they bled!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, War-spirit! War-spirit, deep was the gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though heaven was unclouded, and earth all in bloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou, at the onset, that young summer’s day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Didst strike so much valor to darkness away!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, by that thunder, the land is awake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T was the crack of her yoke when beginning to break!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And out of that gloom is her glory to spread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her living be franchised, immortal her dead.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For up from that summit an eagle shall rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To breast the thick clouds, till he sails the blue skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drop, while he bathes at the fountain of light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A plume from his pinion their story to write.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It shall fall where they fell, on the still purple sward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full and warm with the sunbeams their deeds to record;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And move o’er the scroll in the hand of the free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the wing where it grew spans the earth and the sea.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_INNER_SELF" id="THE_INNER_SELF">THE INNER SELF.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">While</span> others lie composed in sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close wrapped in shade and silence deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And starry hosts and angels keep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their vigils o’er the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a curious work to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A secret door to venture through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wondrous being then to view;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If I can stand the sight.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I now take up the sacred key,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unlock my breast, and pass to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inmost, true, essential ME:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lo! I here have found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enclosed within its shrine, the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Myself, my thinking, reasoning part:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But say, my spirit, what thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And whence, and whither bound!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is but with wonder, reverence, fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shrinking, that I thus draw near<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The majesty, that meets me here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My soul, unveiled, in thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cannot give thy form, or hue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or measure, or proportions true;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But feel myself myself subdue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou deepening mystery.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not all the earth, nor air, nor sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could furnish food to nourish thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor welling founts, nor rivers free,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The spirit’s thirst allay:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor silver web, nor cloth of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor stuffs, that time can e’er unfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor pearls, nor gems this world may hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Compose thee an array.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet all the fibres of my frame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Own that from thee their feeling came;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, at the slightest touch, will claim<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy closest sympathy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art their life, their light, their spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Informing them in every thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But how they are allied, and cling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My nobler self, to thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And do I thus the power survey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom all my meaner powers obey?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hand, foot and tongue and eye—are they<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The servants of thy will?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when they pause, repose to take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost thou, untiring and awake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy pinions spread, and swiftly make<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy wide excursions still?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What art thou, never slumbering soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stretch thy wings from pole to pole—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To span the globe—to mark its roll—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its elements to see,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Conspiring thus, to prophesy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its end to come before thine eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whilst thou canst fire and flood defy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor ever cease to be?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, swifter than an eagle flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or arrows dart, dost thou arise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through air and space, and scale the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’Mid shining spheres to roam:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with thy conscious rank elate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost stand and watch at heaven’s bright gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For glimpses of that rich estate<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where thou may’st claim thy home.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thence, near the pit dost thou go down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To spy the difference ’twixt the crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of life, and that dread withering frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which blights a spirit there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, on eternity’s dark brink,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between them dost thou pause, and think,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ask, if thou shalt soar or sink—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To joy or wo the heir.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Too blind to trace thy being’s plan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too small my nobler part to span,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I end my quest where it began,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And from myself retire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hence must own within my breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A power of unknown powers possessed—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A flame, not long to be repressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of clear immortal fire.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="TIME" id="TIME">TIME.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Time</span>, with thy kind and never-wearying powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Giving whate’er we fondly count as ours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life, love, hope, faith, the sun, the stars and flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All that to man is dear to thee we owe!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet does he call thee, slayer, robber, thief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stern, as of his foes thou wert the chief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filling his path with ruins, pain and grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Without one tender blessing to bestow!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nature we laud, when thou, paternal Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast given maturity, as well as prime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To all her works, in every age and clime,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Since the first floweret on her bosom grew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light from the darkness doth thy hand unfold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beauty from dust we in thy deeds behold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The frail, the dimmed, the withered, worn and old<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy breath dissolves, that they may shine anew.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The city flames, and melts the tottering wall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again she rises fairer for the fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou beckonest back the flood! and at thy call,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From crust-capped mounts, volcanic splendors pour.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The absent sun his way to morning bends;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The waning star to thy command attends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fills out and burns; and man to dust descends,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In hope to live, when thou shalt be no more.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The leaves are scattered, yet the waiting tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall have them brought, in verdure, back by thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower has vanished, but the trusting bee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will find her cell again with sweetness stored.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seed may perish, yet the germ will rise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grain is ripened while its sheathing dies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fruits of earth, the glories of the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Forth by thy bounteous hand to man are poured.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We owe thee still for gifts far more divine—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The key to joys it never can be thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give or take; and heavenly light to shine<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When we must enter that dark, shadowy vale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where nought of earth the pathway can illume,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or lend one ray to shoot across the gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gathers round the threshold of the tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When thou must there, first and forever, fail.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, why does man so oft forget that he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Owes all he is, and all he hopes to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou and he are severed, but to thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why does he slay thee piecemeal, day by day?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut out in exile from thine empire, there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that unknown, dread, boundless country, where<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is no retreat, no inn, how will he bear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To have thy spectre haunt the endless way?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man’s wisest study is to know thy worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his relations to thee from his birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bring his course o’er this uneven earth,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +<span class="i2">In a clear sunset, to a quiet close.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, as a weary traveller is undressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While gently thou the spirit may’st divest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of her worn garment, there remains a rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And she goes franchised to that blest repose.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, O Time, as one more hasty year<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of thine is gone, thou hast another here!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grateful we hail it, though the bitter tear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May have put out the light of joy that shone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On many a face; though tender, sundered ties<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have changed to chords that vibrate but with sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In many a stricken breast where sorrow lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Draining the life-stream, while that year has flown.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Countless the blessings showered in its flight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seeming evils, turned and viewed aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May prove but passing clouds, and lined with light.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our trust, deceived in earthly things, may teach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The restless, eager spirit to forego<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her crushing grasp on hollow hopes, that grow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like fragile reeds, to mock her hold below;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And after higher, holier joys to reach.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Time</span>, then our nobler aspirations raise!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since few, and short, and fleeting are our days;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And since, so peaceful are her pleasant ways,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Teach us to wisdom to apply the heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So that, when thou hast safely led us through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy kingdom, with a brighter land in view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calm at thy bourn, and with a kind adieu,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We may, as friends, shake hands with thee and part.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="MY_HEAD" id="MY_HEAD">MY HEAD.</a></h3> +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote" style="margin-left:12%"> +<span class="i0">“The day is come I never thought to see!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Strange revolutions of my farm and me.”<br /></span> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Dryden’s Virgil.</span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">My</span> head! my head! the day is come<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I never, never thought to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all, with fingers and a thumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May to thy chambers have a key!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That is, if thou wouldst but submit<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To come beneath the learned touch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let the judge in judgment sit<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon thy bumps, that prove so much.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I used to think our heads might let<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their own contents, at will, be shown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never thought mankind could get<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An outward way to make them known.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the sapient hand has cut<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The matter short, and all may tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy value, as they ’d prize a nut,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And know the kernel by the shell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If half the light, that has been thrown<br /></span> +<span class="i2"><em>On</em> heads, were only poured <em>within</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou wouldst not thus be left to own<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The darkness that is now thy sin.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, while the world is in a blaze<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of purely phrenologic light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, wildered thing, art in a maze,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And destitute of faith and sight.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They use a thousand meaning words<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou couldst not utter or define,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of which, to tell the truth, three thirds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were gravel, in a mouth like thine.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They hold me out an empty skull,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To show the powers of living brains:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is just like feeling of the hull,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To tell what goods the ship contains.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, whether nature or mishap<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have raised the bump, ’t is all the same;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sage’s crown, or dunce’s cap<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Must be awarded as its claim.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This hobby, that so many sit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And manage with such ease and grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I dare not try with rein or bit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It seems so of the donkey race.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, my head, no doubt, ’t is all<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A fault of thine, a want of sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That so much said by Combe and Gall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Spurzheim cannot turn thee right.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know not what thy case may be,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If thou art hollow, or opaque;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I only know thou canst not see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And faith declines one step to take.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This burst of light has turned thee numb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Depriving thee of every sense;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So now, if tried, thou must be dumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor say one word in self-defence!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_WHEAT_FIELD" id="THE_WHEAT_FIELD">THE WHEAT FIELD.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Field</span> of wheat, so full and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shining, with thy sunny hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lightly waving either way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Graceful as the breezes play—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking like a summer sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How I love to gaze at thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pleasant art thou to the sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to thought a rich delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, thy voice is music sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Softly sighing field of wheat.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pointing upward to the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rising straight, and aiming high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Every stalk is seen to shoot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As an arrow, from the root.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a well-trained company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All in uniform agree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the footing to the ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All in order strict appear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marshalled by a skilful hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All together bow, or stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still, within the proper bound:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None o’ersteps the given ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With its tribute held to pay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At his nod whom they obey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each the gems, that stud its crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will ere long, for man, lay down.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Thou with promise art replete<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the precious sheaves of wheat.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How thy strength in weakness lies!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not a robber bird, that flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Finds support whereby to put<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On a stalk her lawless foot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not a predatory beak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plunges down, thy stores to seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the guard of silver spears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keeps the fruit, and decks the ears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No vain insect, that could do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harm to thee, dares venture through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such an armory, or eat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Off the sheath to take the wheat.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What a study do we find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Opened here for eye and mind!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In it who can offer less,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than to wonder, and confess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That on this high-favored ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faith is blest, and hope is crowned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Charity her arms may spread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wide from it, with gifts of bread.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wisdom, power, and goodness meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the bounteous field of wheat.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_LITTLE_TRAVELLER" id="THE_LITTLE_TRAVELLER">THE LITTLE TRAVELLER.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I am</span> the tiniest child of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But still, I would like to be known to fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though next to nothing I had my birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lowest of all is my lowly name.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, if so humble my native place,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I this can say, in family pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I ’m of the world’s most numerous race,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And made by the Maker of all beside.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Although I ’m so poor, I have nought to lose;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Still I ’m so little I can’t be lost:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I journey about wherever I choose,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And those, who carry me, bear the cost.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The most forgiving of earthly things,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I often cling to my deadly foe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, spite of the cruelest flirts and flings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Arise by the force that has cast me low.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When beauty has trodden me under foot,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I ’ve quietly risen her face to seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Embraced her forehead, or calmly put<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Myself to rest in her dimpled cheek.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I ’ve ridden to war on the soldier’s plume;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But startled, and sprung at the wild affray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sights of horror, of fire and fume,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And fled on the wing of the winds away.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I ’ve visited courts, and been ushered in<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the proudest guest of the stately scene;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ’ve touched his majesty’s bosom-pin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the nuptial ring of his lofty queen.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At the royal board, in the grand parade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I ’ve oft been one familiar and free:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fairest lady has smiled, and laid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her delicate, gloveless hand on me.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Philosopher, poet, the learned, the sage,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Never declines a call from me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all, of every rank and age,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Admit me into their <em>coterie</em>.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I visit the lions of every where,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If human, or brute, and can testify<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To what they do, to what they wear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To wonders none ever beheld but I!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, reviewing the things I ’ve done,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Forgetting my name, my rank and birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I begin to think I am number one<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the great and manifold things of earth.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I ’ve still much more, that I yet might tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which modesty bids me here withhold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For fear with my travels I seem to swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">grow, for an <span class="smcap">ATOM OF DUST</span>, too bold!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_ENTANGLED_FLY" id="THE_ENTANGLED_FLY">THE ENTANGLED FLY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Ah</span>, thou unfortunate!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Poor, silly fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Caught in the spider’s web,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hung there to die!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What could have tempted thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What led thee there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thy foe, thus to throw<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Around thee the snare?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Struggling and crying so<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ne’er can unweave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From thee the silken threads,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Laid to deceive.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow for wandering<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Comes now in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, with one thus undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Grief adds to pain.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, I will rescue thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unwary thing!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou may’st again be off,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">High on the wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thou wilt promise me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hence to be found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never more, as before,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On evil ground.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Trust not the flatterer<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Skilled to ensnare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is a wily one;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Think, and beware.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down to his dusky ways<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No more descend!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Little fly, thou and I<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Both want a friend.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man hath an enemy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose snare is laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Softly and silently,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Deep in the shade.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light, by the tempter shunned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Only can show<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, secure, free, and pure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our feet may go.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_PEACH_BLOSSOMS" id="THE_PEACH_BLOSSOMS">THE PEACH BLOSSOMS.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Come</span> here! come here! cousin Mary, and see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What fair, ripe peaches there are on the tree—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the very same bough that was given to me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By father, one day last spring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When it looked so beautiful, all in the blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I wanted to pluck it, he told me, you know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I might, but that waiting a few months would show<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The fruit, that patience might bring.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And as I perceived, by the sound of his voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the look of his eye, it was clearly his choice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it should not be touched, I have now to rejoice<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That I told him we ’d let it remain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, had it been gathered when full in the flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its blossoms had withered, perhaps, in an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nothing on earth could have given the power<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That would make them flourish again.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now, of a fruit so delicious and sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ’ve enough for myself and my playmates a treat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they tell me, besides, that the kernels secrete<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What, if planted, will make other trees:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the shell will come open to let down the root;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sprout will spring up, whence the branches will shoot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There ’ll be buds, leaves, and blossoms; and then comes the fruit—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such beautiful peaches as these!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Nature, they say, like a mighty machine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has a wheel in a wheel, which, if aught comes between,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It ruins her work, as it might have been seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had it not given patience this trial.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From this, I ’ll be careful to keep it in mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the blossoms I love, that there lingers behind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A better reward, that the trusting shall find<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For a trifling self-denial.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BROKEN_PIPE" id="THE_BROKEN_PIPE">THE BROKEN PIPE.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Come</span> here, little Willie:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why, what is the trouble?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“I ’ve broke my new pipe, ma’—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I can’t make a bubble!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well, do n’t weep for that, child,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But brighten your face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tell how the grievous<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Disaster took place.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Why, Puss came along;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, said I, ‘Now she ’ll think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That white, frothy water<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is milk she may drink.’<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“So I set it before her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And plunged her mouth in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When up came both paws,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And clung fast to my chin.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Then I gave her a blow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With my pipe; and it flew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At once into pieces!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O what shall I do?<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I can’t make a bubble!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I wish naughty Kit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had been a mile off:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">See! there ’s blood on me yet!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I ’m sorry, my boy; yet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Your loss is but just;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You first deceived Pussy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And trifled with trust.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In this, when you failed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You compelled her; and thence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wound on your face,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From poor Kit’s self-defence.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, when you grew cruel<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And beat her, you know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your pipe and yourself<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fared the worst for the blow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let this lesson teach you,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hence never to stoop<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make man, or brute,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That may trust you, a dupe.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when you have power,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It should not be abused,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oppressing the weaker,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor strength be misused.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, often, unkindness<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Returns whence it came;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever deceit must<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be followed by shame.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Remember this, William,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And here end your sorrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ’ll buy you a pipe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To blow bubbles, to-morrow.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="VIVY_VAIN" id="VIVY_VAIN">VIVY VAIN.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Miss Vain was all given to dress—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too fond of gay clothing; and so,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She ’d gad about town<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Just to show a new gown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a train-band their color to show.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her head being empty and light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whene’er she obtained a new hat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With pride in her air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She ’d go round, here and there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all whom she knew to see that.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her folly was chiefly in this:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More highly she valued fine looks,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than virtue, or truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or devoting her youth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To usefulness, friendship, or books.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her passion for show was unchecked;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therefore, it happened one day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Arrayed in bright hues,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with new hat and shoes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Miss Vain walked abroad for display.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She took the most populous streets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cause but aversion in those,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who saw how she ’d prinked,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to bystanders winked,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the boys cried, “Halloo! there she goes!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It chanced, that, in passing one way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She came near a pool, and a green<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With fence close and high;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, as Vivy drew nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A donkey stood near it unseen.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He put his mouth over its top,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moment she came by his place;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And gave a loud bray<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In her ear, when, away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sprang, shrieked, and fell on her face.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She thought she was swallowed alive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Awhile upon earth lying flat;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the terrible sound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seemed to furrow the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She embraced in her fine gown and hat.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She gathered herself up, and ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet heeded not whither or whence,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To flee from the roar,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That continued to pour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behind her, from over the fence.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In passing a slope near the pool,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She slipped and rolled down to its brim;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The geese gave a shout,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And at length hissed her out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the bounds, where they ’d gathered to swim.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In turning a corner, she met<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abruptly, the horns of a cow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That mooed, while the cur,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At her heels, turned from her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And aimed at Miss Vain his “bow-wow.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Vivy’s bright ribbons and skirt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As she flew, flirted high on the wind;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The children at play,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Paused to see one so gay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all in a flutter behind.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A group of glad schoolboys came by:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Said they, “So it seems, that to-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Miss Vain carries marks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At which the dog barks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that make sober Long-Ears to bray.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when, all bedraggled and pale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poor Vivy approached her own door,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She went, swift and straight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a dart, through the gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abhorring the gay gear she wore.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She sat down, and thought of the scene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With humiliation and tears:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The words, and the noise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the brutes and the boys<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were echoing still in her ears.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She reasoned, and came at the cause,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resolving that cause to remove;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thence, her desire<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was for modest attire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her heart and her mind to improve.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And soon, all who knew her before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remarked on the change and the gain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In mind, and in mien,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And in dress, that were seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the once flashy Miss Vivy Vain.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_MOCKING_BIRD" id="THE_MOCKING_BIRD">THE MOCKING BIRD.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><span class="smcap">A Mocking</span> Bird was he,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In a bushy, blooming tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imbosomed by the foliage and flower.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And there he sat and sang,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Till all around him rang,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sounds, from out the merry mimic’s bower.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The little satirist<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Piped, chattered, shrieked, and hissed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He then would moan, and whistle, quack, and caw;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Then, carol, drawl, and croak,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As if he ’d pass a joke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On every other winged one he saw.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Together he would catch<br /></span> +<span class="i4">A gay and plaintive snatch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mingle notes of half the feathered throng.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For well the mocker knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of every thing that flew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To imitate the manner and the song.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The other birds drew near,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And paused awhile to hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How well he gave their voices and their airs.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And some became amused;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">While some, disturbed, refused<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To own the sounds that others said were theirs.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The sensitive were shocked,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To find their honors mocked<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By one so pert and voluble as he;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">They knew not if ’t was done<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In earnest or in fun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fluttered off in silence from the tree.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The silliest grew vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To think a song or strain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of theirs, however weak, or loud, or hoarse,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Was worthy to be heard<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Repeated by the bird;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For of his wit they could not feel the force.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The charitable said,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“Poor fellow! if his head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is turned, or cracked, or has no talent left;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But feels the want of powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And plumes itself from ours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why, we shall not be losers by the theft.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The haughty said, “He thus,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">It seems, would mimic us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And steal our songs, to pass them for his own!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But if he only quotes<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In honor of our notes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We then were quite as honored, let alone.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">The wisest said, “If foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or friend, we still may know<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +<span class="i0">By him, wherein our greatest failing lies.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">So, let us not be moved,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Since first to be improved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By every thing, becomes the truly wise.”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BIRDS_HOME" id="THE_BIRDS_HOME">THE BIRD’S HOME.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><span class="smcap">O where</span> is thy home, sweet bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the song, and the bright, glossy plume?<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“I ’ll tell thee where I rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">If thou wilt not rob my nest;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I built among the sweet apple bloom.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">But what ’s in thy nest, bright bird?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What ’s there, in the snug, downy cell?<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“If thou wilt not rob the tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Nor go too near, to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My quiet little home, I will tell.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">O! I will not thy trust betray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But closely thy secret I will keep.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“I ’ve three little tender things,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That have never used their wings!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I left them there, at home, fast asleep.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Then, why art thou here, my bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away from thy young, helpless brood?<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“To pay thee with a song,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Just to let me pass along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor harm me, as I look for their food!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BIRD_UNCAGED" id="THE_BIRD_UNCAGED">THE BIRD UNCAGED.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">She</span> opened the cage, and away there flew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bright little bird, as a short adieu<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It hastily whistled, and passed the door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And felt that its sorrowful hours were o’er.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">An anthem of freedom it seemed to sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To utter its joy for an outspread wing,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That now it could sport in the boundless air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And might go any and every where.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Anna rejoiced in her bird’s delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But her eye was wet, as she marked its flight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till, this was the song that she seemed to hear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, merrily warbled, it dried the tear:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I had a mistress, and she was kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all, but keeping her bird confined;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She ministered food and drink to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, O I was pining for liberty!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“My fluttering bosom she loved to smooth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the heart within it, she could not soothe:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sickened and longed for the wildwood breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My feathery kindred, and fresh green trees.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“A prisoner there, with a useless wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I looked with sorrow on every thing;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +<span class="i0">I lost my voice, and forgot my song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mourned in silence, the whole day long.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“But I will go back, with a mellower pipe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sing, when the cherries are round and ripe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the topmost bough, as I lock my feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To help myself, in my leafy seat.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“My merriest notes shall there be heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To draw her eye to her franchised bird;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The burden, then, of my song shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Earth for the wingless! but air for me!’”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="DAME_BIDDY" id="DAME_BIDDY">DAME BIDDY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Dame Biddy</span> abode in a coop,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Because it so chanced, that dame Biddy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had round her a family group<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of chicks, young, and helpless and giddy.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when she had freedom to roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She fancied the life of a ranger;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And led off her brood, far from home,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To fall into mischief or danger.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She ’d trail through the grass to be mown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And call all her children to follow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scratch up the seeds that were sown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then, lie in their places and wallow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She ’d go where the corn in the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its first little blade had been shooting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And try, by the strength of her bill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To learn if the kernel was rooting.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when she went out on a walk<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of pleasure, through thicket and brambles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The covetous eye of a hawk<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Delighted in marking her rambles.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I spy,” to himself he would say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“A prize of which I ’ll be the winner!”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So down would he pounce on his prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bear off a chicken for dinner.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The poor frighted matron, that heard<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cry of her youngling in dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would scream at the merciless bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That high with his booty was flying.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But shrieks could not ease her distress,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor grief her lost darling recover.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She now had a chicken the less,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For acting the part of a rover.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And there lay the feathers, all torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And flying one way and another,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That still her dear child might have worn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had she been more wise as a mother.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her owner then thought he must teach<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dame Biddy a little subjection;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cooped her up, out of the reach<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of hawking, with time for reflection.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, throwing a net o’er a pile<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of brush-wood that near her was lying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hoped to its meshes to wile<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The fowler, that o’er her was flying.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For Hawk, not forgetting his fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And having a taste to renew it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sailed round near the coop, high in air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With cruel intention, to view it.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The owner then said, “Master Hawk,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If you love my chickens so dearly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come down to my yard for a walk,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That you may address them more nearly.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, “No,” thought the sharp-taloned foe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of Biddy, “my circuit is higher!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I to his premises go,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T will be when I see he ’s not nigh her.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Farmer strewed barley, and toled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The chickens the brush to run under,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left them, while Hawk growing bold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thus tempted, came near for his plunder.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As closer and closer he drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With appetite stronger and stronger,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He found he ’d but one thing to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And plunged, to defer it no longer.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now had he come to a pause,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At once in the net-work entangled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While through it his head and his claws<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In hopeless vacuity dangled.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The chicks saw him hang overhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where they for their barley had huddled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all in a flutter they fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And soon through the coop holes had scuddled.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The farmer came out to his snare.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He saw the bold captive was in it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And said, “If this play be unfair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Remember, I did not begin it!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He then put a cork on his beak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The airy assassin disarming,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unspurred him, and rendered him weak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By blunting each talent for harming.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And into the coop he was thrown:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The chickens hid under their mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he, by his feathers was known<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As he, who had murdered their brother.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dame Biddy, beholding his plight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Determined to show him no quarter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In action gave vent to her spite;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As motherly tenderness taught her.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She shouted, and blustered; and then<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Attacked the poor captive unfriended;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you, (who have witnessed a hen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In anger,) may guess how it ended.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She made him a touching address,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If pecking and scratching could do it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till, sinking in silent distress,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He perished before she got through it.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We would not, however, convey<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A thought like approving the fury,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gave, in this summary way,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Punition, without judge or jury.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whenever thus given, it tends<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To lessen the angry bestower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The <em>fowl</em> that inflicts it, descends—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The <em>featherless</em> biped, still lower.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_ENVIOUS_LOBSTER" id="THE_ENVIOUS_LOBSTER">THE ENVIOUS LOBSTER.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">A Lobster</span> from the water came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saw another, just the same<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In form and size; but gayly clad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In scarlet clothing; while she had<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No other raiment to her back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than her old suit of greenish black.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“So ho!” she cried, “’t is very fine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your dress was yesterday like mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the mud below the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You lived, a crawling thing, like me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now, because you ’ve come ashore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You ’ve grown so proud, that what you wore—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your strong old suit of bottle-green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You think improper to be seen.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tell the truth, I don ’t see why<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You should be better dressed than I.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I should like a suit of red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As bright as yours, from feet to head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think I’ m quite as good as you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And might be clothed in scarlet, too.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Will you be boiled?” her owner said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“To be arrayed in glowing red?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come here, my discontented miss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hear the scalding kettle hiss!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will you go in, and there be boiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have your dress, so old and soiled,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Exchanged for one of scarlet hue?”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Yes,” cried the lobster, “that I ’ll do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And twice as much, if needs must be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be as gayly clad as she.”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, in she made a fatal dive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never more was seen alive!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, if you ever chance to know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of one as fond of dress and show<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As that vain lobster, and withal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As envious, you ’ll perhaps recall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mind her folly, and the plight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In which she reappeared to sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She had obtained a bright array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But for it, thrown herself away!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her life and death were best untold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But for the moral they unfold!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="KIT_WITH_THE_ROSE" id="KIT_WITH_THE_ROSE">KIT WITH THE ROSE.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">A rose tree</span> stood in the parlor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When kit came frolicking by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So up went her feet on the window-seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To a rose, that had caught her eye.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She gave it a cuff, and it trembled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath her ominous paw;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And while it shook, with a threatening look<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She coveted what she saw.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thought she, “What a beautiful toss-ball,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If I could but give it a snap,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all are out, nor thinking about<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their rose, or the least mishap!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She twisted the stem, and she twirled it;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, seizing the flower it bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the timely aid of her teeth, she made<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A leap to the parlor floor.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And over the carpet she tossed it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All fresh in its morning bloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till shattered and rent, its leaves were sent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To every side of the room.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At length, with her sport grown weary,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She laid herself down to sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inclining to doze, forgetting the rose<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the mischief she had done.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By and by her young mistress entered,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And uttered a piteous cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she saw the fate of what had so late<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Delighted her watchful eye.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But where was the one, who had spoiled it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Concealing his guilty face?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She had not a clue whereby to pursue<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The rogue to his lurking-place.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thought kit, “I ’ll keep still till ’t is over,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And none will suspect it was I.”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the puss awoke, when her mistress spoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And she well understood the cry.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, mewing at length for her dinner,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kit’s mouth confessed the whole truth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It opened so wide, that her mistress spied<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A rose-leaf pierced by her tooth.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then kit was expelled from the parlor<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All covered with shame. And those<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inclined, like her, in secret to err,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Should remember kit with the rose.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_STORM_IN_THE_FOREST" id="THE_STORM_IN_THE_FOREST">THE STORM IN THE FOREST.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> storm in the forest is rending and sweeping;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While tree after tree bows its stately green head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flowerets beneath them are bending and weeping;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And leaves, torn and trembling, all round them are spread.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The bird that had roamed, till she thinks her benighted,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dismayed, hastens back to her home in the wood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flags not a wing, till her bosom, affrighted,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has laid its warm down o’er her own little brood.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And they, since that fond one so quickly has found them,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To shelter their heads from the rain and the blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall fearless repose, while the bolts burst around them;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lie calm and safe, till the darkness is past.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hast thou, too, not felt, when the tempest was drearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And rending thy covert, or shaking thy rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine own blessed angel that moment the nearest—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy screen in his pinion—thy shield in his breast?<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When clouds frowned the darkest, and perils beset thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till each prop of earth seemed to bend, or to break,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did e’er thy good angel turn off, and forget thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mother her little ones, then, may forsake!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, no! thou shalt feel thy protector the surer—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sun, in returning, more cheering and warm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all things around thee, seem fresher and purer,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And touched with new glory, because of the storm!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_UPROOTED_ELM" id="THE_UPROOTED_ELM">THE UPROOTED ELM.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Alas</span>! alas! my good old tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fatal change is past on thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now thine aged form I see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All helpless, lying low:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rending tempest, in its flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Mid darkness of the wintry night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath struck thee, passing in its might,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And felled thee at a blow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And never more the blooming spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall to thy boughs rich verdure bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or her gay birds, to flit and sing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where their first plumage grew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thou, so long, so fondly made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My eye’s delight, my summer shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, as a lifeless king, art laid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In state, for all to view.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy noble trunk and reverend head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Defined on that cold, snow-white bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those old arms, so widely spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy hopelessness declare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy roots, in earth concealed so long—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That struck so deep, with hold so strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upturned with many a broken prong,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are quivering high in air.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But yester-eve I saw thee stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lofty front, with aspect grand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where thou hadst braved the ruthless hand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of time, and spread, and towered;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stood the rain, the hail, the blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till more than hundred years had passed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fall so suddenly at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Forever overpowered!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, while I sadly ponder o’er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What now thou art, and wast before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were sighs to rise, and tears to pour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like summer winds and rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all the sighs and drops of grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could bring to thee one bud or leaf;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou liest so like a stricken chief,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By one swift arrow slain.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But may’st thou prove an emblem true<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of what the spoiler’s hand shall do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one, who pensive here would view<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A shadowy type in thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let not the conqueror piecemeal slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With power by power in slow decay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But strike, and all in ashes lay!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Farewell, my good old tree!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THROUGH_THE_CLOUDS" id="THROUGH_THE_CLOUDS">THROUGH THE CLOUDS.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Through</span> the clouds that veil the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come, O sun, and sweetly smile!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Show thy glory to mine eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So my heart may beam the while.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, and chase this day of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the world is sadly dim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thy blessed face of light<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let my spirit sing her hymn.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, in silence and alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I, to pass the heavy hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sit and fancy nature’s moan<br /></span> +<span class="i2">After thy reviving power.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blasts of wildered, wandering air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Asking where thy face can be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chill and cheerless, every where,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sighing, wailing, seek for thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mourning o’er the earth is spread;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bud and flower look pale with grief.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sick, the plant has hung its head;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dulness weighs on every leaf.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not a bird is heard to sing.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reft of thine inspiring ray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a lyre of every string,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Each from sight is hid away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sable clouds, that veil the blue<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the skies, their shadows throw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, until their sombre hue<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gives a cast to all below.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, O sun, and through the gloom<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let thy beaming vesture fall!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bringing music, joy and bloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Spread thy mantle o’er us all.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What were there on earth to love—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What were beauteous, bright, or dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wert thou not so true above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thy holy influence here?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="MY_ROSE_TREE" id="MY_ROSE_TREE">MY ROSE TREE.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Rose tree</span>, O! my beauteous rose tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Often have I longed to know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How thy tender leaves were moulded—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How thy buds are burst, and blow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have watered, sunned, and trained thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And have watched thee many an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet I never could discover<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How a bud becomes a flower.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So, last night I thought about thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On my pillow, till, at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I was gone in quiet slumber;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a dream before me passed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In it, I beheld my rose tree<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stripped of flower, and bud and leaf;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While thy naked stalk and branches<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Filled me with surprise and grief.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, methought, I wept to see thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Spoiled of all that made thee dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till a band of smiling angels<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mildly shining, hovered near.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gently as they gathered round thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All in silence, one of them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid his soft, fair fingers on thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pulling leaves from out the stem.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One by one thy twigs he furnished<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a dress of foliage green;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While another angel followed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bringing buds the leaves between.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then came one the buds to open;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He their silken rolls unsheathed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the one who tints the roses,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Through their loosened foldings breathed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the angel of the odors<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Filled each golden-bottomed cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till, between the parting petals,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Free on air the fragrance fell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lifting then their shining pinions,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Quick the angels passed from sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving, where aloft they vanished,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But a stream of fading light.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There I heard sweet strains of music,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And their voices far above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dying in the azure distance,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Naming thee a gift of love.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, my rose tree stood before me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Finished thus by angel hands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perfect in its bloom and fragrance,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beautiful, as now it stands.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hence, whenever I behold thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I shall think of angels too;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the countless works of goodness<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They descend on earth to do.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All unseen and silent, round us<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They their careful watches keep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether we may wake, or slumber,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Guardian angels never sleep!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_INFANT_BAPTIST" id="THE_INFANT_BAPTIST">THE INFANT BAPTIST.</a></h3> + +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote"> +<p>And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the +deserts until the day of his showing unto Israel.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Luke</span> i. 80.<br /> +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Child</span>, amid the honeyed flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Passing life’s bright morning hours—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Playing in the silver rills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where they bathe Judea’s hills—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking, with an earnest eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the wild bird flitting by—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Infant of the joyous heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Canst thou tell me who thou art?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou, whose little hand in play<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hurls the clustered grapes away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While thou lov’st to watch the bee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or to win a lamb to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to see the fleecy flock<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resting by the shadowy rock,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Know’st thou, tender, beauteous boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What ’s thine errand—whence thy joy?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T was thy name that Gabriel spoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the altar, while the smoke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From thy father’s incense rolled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thy being was foretold!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art come, the promised one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the dayspring to the sun,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Soon to usher in new light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the realms of death and night!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Heavenly innocence is now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marked upon thy peaceful brow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God’s own Spirit filleth thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sainted babe; for thou art he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who before the Lamb shall go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crying, that the world may know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath life to give the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the blood he comes to shed!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though, from nature wild and rude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come thy raiment, rest, and food,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nightly o’er thy desert sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Angels shall their vigils keep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the wilderness by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They will guard and lead the way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till to Israel thou appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Showing heaven’s mild kingdom near.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">High and glorious, then, the part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thine eye, and hand, and heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thy feet, on Jordan’s side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feel the waters, as they glide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou the Son of God shalt see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come to be baptized of thee—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear him named, and see the Dove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resting on him from above!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="HYMN_TO_SOLITUDE" id="HYMN_TO_SOLITUDE">HYMN TO SOLITUDE.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">O solitude</span>, holy and calm!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From tumult and crowds breaking free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fly, sick and sad, for the balm<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I find given only by thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Too oft from thy peace I depart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kind guardian, friend of my soul,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then bring an earth-wounded heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For thee to bind up and make whole.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My spirit, now worn and oppressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her wings in thy bosom hath furled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sink, as a bird in its nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Away from a cold, faithless world!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alarmed at the shade and the chill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That o’er me its visions have cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I here would lie lowly and still,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till sorrow’s dark night hours are past.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then, from the dust may I rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To mount, as the lark from her sod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sing, as the morn of my skies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Appears in the smile of my God.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O solitude, sacred and sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whilst thus in thy bosom I lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth’s baubles are under my feet—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My heart and its treasure, on high.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BIBLE_IN_THE_FIELDS" id="THE_BIBLE_IN_THE_FIELDS">THE BIBLE IN THE FIELDS.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I love</span> to take this holy book,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In summer’s balmy hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To study it beside the brook,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or by the trees and flowers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For here I read about the God,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who made this world so fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The skies—the stream—the grassy sod<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bloom, that scents the air.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The birds flit round, and sweetly sing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of him, who feeds them all,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lifts the towering eagle’s wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And marks the sparrow’s fall.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The violet, from its soft green bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To speak his goodness too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Presents its tender, purple head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Baptized with silvery dew.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And here the busy bee I view,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As she comes swiftly by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seems to ask, if she should do<br /></span> +<span class="i2">More work, or good than I.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her waxen house betimes to build<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I see her wisely bent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, with bread and honey filled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To have it, still intent.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The bees I find their sweets supplied<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In wild Judea’s land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To feed the Baptist, when he cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“Heaven’s kingdom is at hand.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when our Saviour, from the grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had asked his friends for meat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He ate the honey-comb they gave;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And showed his hands and feet.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This volume of his will revealed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I here can read within,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Behold the lilies of the field—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They neither toil nor spin!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet the king “was not arrayed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In glory, like to them;”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their Maker’s power is so displayed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In flower and leaf and stem.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And he sat on the mountain’s side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who spake these blessed words,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before him flowery fields spread wide—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Around were trees and birds.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fleecy flocks, that sport so free<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On hill and valley deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I love to watch: and here I see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T is written, “Feed my sheep.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For thus I seem to keep in view,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And feel how near I am<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To that dear friend of children, who<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has named himself <span class="smcap">the Lamb</span>.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_HOARY_HEAD" id="THE_HOARY_HEAD">THE HOARY HEAD.</a></h3> + +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote"> +<p>“The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way +of righteousness.”</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Aged</span> man, with locks so hoary,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">High estate dost thou possess!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They appear thy crown of glory,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the way of righteousness.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Jewels, not of man’s preparing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Form the shining diadem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art from thy Sovereign wearing:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God’s own finger silvered them.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thine are honors, proved and heightened<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the gift of lengthened years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In affliction’s furnace brightened,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tried by cares, and washed with tears.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like thy Master, meek and lowly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou a thorny earth hast trod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thy breast a high and holy<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Temple of the living God.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Aged saint, thy form is bending,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sere and withered, to the tomb;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thy spirit, upward tending,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Budded for immortal bloom.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="MY_FATHER" id="MY_FATHER">MY FATHER.</a></h3> +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote"> +<p> +“In the evening time there shall be light.”<br /> +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Sacred</span> the hour when thou, my sainted father,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wast of thy worn-out, sinking clay undressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Softly, by his pale hand, who comes to gather<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Time’s weary pilgrims home to joy and rest.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Noiseless, and clear, and holiest of the seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That day when thy last earthly sun went down:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy Sabbath, closing here, began in heaven;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whilst thy meek brow changed ashes for a crown.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hush was the evening; not a zephyr swelling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Heaved the tree-blossom, or the woodbine leaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Silent the bird, that sang about our dwelling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Slept where she nestled, close beneath its eaves.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a><br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cloudless the moon and stars above were shining,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When time’s last ray to thy mild eye was shed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While death’s cold touch, life’s silver cord untwining,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Brought his chill night-dew on thy reverend head.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ninety full years of pilgrimage completing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here didst thou linger till one Sabbath more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T was holy time; thy pure heart stilled its beating;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pain, work, and warfare were forever o’er!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meet hour for one, obedient, meek, and lowly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wont, by command of Heaven, the day to keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called, at its evening, to the High and Holy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Peaceful in Jesus thus to fall asleep!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweetly thy form, that seemed a blissful dreamer,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Told, by its features, how the spirit smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the dark, shadowy vale, by thy Redeemer<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Led to his mansion, like a little child.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nature’s full hand, that, on thy natal morning,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Clothed earth to greet thee in the flowers of May,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brought them renewed; thy burial-spot adorning,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When fourscore years and ten had rolled away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, while the robin, past the window flying,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Leads off her young, forsaking here her nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Constant the wild bird, where thy dust is lying,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sings her sweet hymn, a requiem to its rest.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There has it joined the ashes of my mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Faithful, rewedded to its only bride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there thy latest-born, my younger brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy fond heart’s care, sleeps closely by her side.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, angel father, over Jordan’s water<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is it so far, that now thou canst not see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back to the shore, where lonely stands thy daughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sprinkling its rocks and thorns with tears for thee?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Art thou so distant, visions of thy glory<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May not be granted to her mortal sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she so long watched o’er thy head so hoary,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Smoothing its pillow, till that mournful night?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Since here so oft, in pain, the path of duty<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy patient feet, with steady steps, have trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Safe now they walk the golden streets in beauty;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, O! thy blessed eyes, in peace, see God!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A robin had, this spring, been seen taking materials from an +old nest on an apple-tree near the door, and carrying them to the +corner of the house, where she built on the top of the water-conductor, +and close under the eaves, so near my father’s chamber, +that, when her brood had peeped, if the window was opened, their +voices could be heard in the room, while she was feeding them.</p></div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="A_SAGE_HATH_DEPARTED" id="A_SAGE_HATH_DEPARTED">A SAGE HATH DEPARTED.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> Lord, from his cloudy pavilion, hath spoken<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The soul to himself, and its dust to the clod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cord He hath loosed, and the golden bowl broken,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who formed them so precious. Be still! it is God.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A sage hath departed! the cities sit weeping;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From land unto land does the gloom spread away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seas give their wail to the winds o’er them sweeping—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The spirit, that spanned them, hath passed from the clay!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His form, pale and cold, the dark mansion encloses;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Around it, Philanthropy, Science and Art<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their tears for their friend, as in death he reposes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shower warm o’er the hand, and the head, and the heart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But there, while affection her tribute is giving,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The beauty, the grandeur, the power of his mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grave cannot hide! in his deeds he is living;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He shines in the light he diffused for mankind!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That mind, as a guide that trod paths on the ocean<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its marks o’er the billowy desert to place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While man has a heart, and the deep is in motion,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wide world shall honor, the mariner trace.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The stars in their courses to grasp and to measure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His eye loved the blue arch of ether to climb;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His soul rose beyond them to lay up a treasure<br /></span> +<span class="i2">More bright than the stars, more enduring than time.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And here, while the sorrowing Salem<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> is shrouded<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In weeds, for the son of her pride and her love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is his to behold, with a vision unclouded,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The glories unveiled of the <span class="smcap">Salem</span> above.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With <span class="smcap">Bowditch</span> inscribed, for the whole earth’s revering,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In letters of light to each point beaming round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A monument formed of his works, now is rearing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its head, where with clusters of planets ’t is crowned.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> His birth-place.</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BURIAL_OF_SCHILLER" id="THE_BURIAL_OF_SCHILLER">THE BURIAL OF SCHILLER.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> still and solemn, shadowy hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When Saturday in Sabbath dies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er Weimar hangs; with clouds that lower<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And veil in black the moon and skies.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo! from yon mansion lights appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pale glimmering through the midnight gloom.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A coffined form is on the bier,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thence borne forward to the tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The funeral train, how sad and slow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They follow that cold sleeping clay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While sighs and sobs of bitter wo<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sound deep along the silent way.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, the open grave beside,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That dismal bier the bearers rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heavier waves of sorrow’s tide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Roll mighty o’er each mourner’s breast.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From him who slumbers in the shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As tremblingly they lift the pall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moon rends off her veil of cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And o’er him lets her lustre fall.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She beams her silvery, soft adieu.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And is again in darkness hid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if affrighted, thus to view<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The name on that dread coffin lid.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For ’t is her lover, now no more—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her friend, whom they to dust consign!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ne’er again is she to pour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her light,—for eyes like his to shine.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is done,—the fearful, final rite,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Too sacred for the glare of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has passed beneath the shadowy night—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Earth, earth has closed o’er <span class="smcap">Schiller</span>’s clay!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, hark! the heavens in thunder groan;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They weep in torrents o’er his bed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And searching, fiery bolts are thrown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As if to find and wake the dead.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These funeral honors, so sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Befit him well to whom they ’re paid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, at the birth of holy time,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T is meet his dust at rest be laid.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His spirit, bright with heavenly fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has burned its way through mortal strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gained its high, intense desire<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To solve the mystery of life.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is the budding month of May:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This passing storm will call the bloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tribute nature soon will pay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To dress her deathless Poet’s tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="FUNERAL_HYMN_FOR_PRESIDENT" id="FUNERAL_HYMN_FOR_PRESIDENT">FUNERAL HYMN FOR PRESIDENT +HARRISON.</a></h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">A wo-stricken</span> people, in sorrow we gather!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dawn of our glory, our hopes full in bloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are changed, with the face of our Chieftain, our Father,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To sable and cypress to hang round his tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While pale in the shroud lies the Patriot sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A light, that for earth is no longer to burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Removed from its place, a sad nation is weeping;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And dark, where it shone, falls the shade of an urn.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When loud, through the land, hill and valley and mountain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were sounding his name, and reflecting its beams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The death-angel’s wand opened griefs bitter fountain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To quench their warm joys with its far-flowing streams.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas! that the spoiler so early must sever<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A tie, which the hearts of a country had bound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To him, who is gone—who is gone, and forever,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To join the bright hosts who their Saviour surround!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our Father in heaven, yet grant us another,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like him, who has left us, as orphans, below!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O did not the Sage on his dear younger Brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When called to thy presence, his mantle bestow?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To Thee, who, from darkness, thy children hast stricken,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We cry with our wound, asking balm from the Tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose leaves heal the nations: Hear, hear us, and quicken<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our wandering feet to return unto Thee!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="DIRGE_FOR_FELICIA_HEMANS" id="DIRGE_FOR_FELICIA_HEMANS">DIRGE FOR FELICIA HEMANS.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">They</span> hovered around her, an angel band:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They listened her notes to hear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The voice was one of their own bright land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But stained was the harp in their sister’s hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With marks of the falling tear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They saw she had wreathed it with deathless flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While many a beauteous leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That looked like the growth of their heavenly bowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was pale with the shade of her darksome hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or wet with the dews of grief.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then gently from under her hand they took<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her harp, and laid it aside:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tremulous chords, at her parting look<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the farewell sweep of her fingers, shook,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And snapped as her numbers died.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The angels had whispered of joys above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wooed her with them to soar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till spreading her wings like a peaceful dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her spirit arose for a world of love<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To wander on earth no more.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Britannia</span>, drop thy heaviest tear!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O weep! it will be forgiven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, fain we had kept in her bondage here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A soul so pure, and a voice so dear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had longer withheld from heaven.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="SHE_DIED_AS_DAWNED_HER_NATAL_DAY" id="SHE_DIED_AS_DAWNED_HER_NATAL_DAY">SHE DIED, AS DAWNED HER NATAL DAY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">She</span> died, as dawned her natal day!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the buds and flowers of May<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her spirit left the beauteous clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In death’s deep slumber here;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mounting up her starry way,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Attained that holier sphere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where falls no night o’er birth-day light—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No sorrow brings a tear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The joy and glory of the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With radiance fill her heavenly eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where thornless flowers around her rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And founts that ne’er shall fail;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While here her form so lowly lies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All silent, cold and pale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where dews distil, and night-winds chill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Moan through the shadowy vale.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="WRITTEN_IN_AN_ALBUM_AFTER_THE" id="WRITTEN_IN_AN_ALBUM_AFTER_THE">WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM, AFTER THE +LINES OF A DECEASED FRIEND.</a></h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Close</span> to the lines that her dear hand had traced,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who took so soon an angel’s form on high—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">After her name is my memorial placed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For thee, my friend, and it shall tell thee why.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I find a sweetness where her spirit breathed:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A sacred halo round her name is thrown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, with the flowers that here her fingers wreathed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To borrow life from them, I twine my own.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fresh in thy heart and mine her memory lives,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fragrant and fair, and thornless in its bloom:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here with the precious odor that it gives,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I fain my simple offering would perfume.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, whatsoe’er the change that comes to me—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though death or duty put me far away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These silent leaves may still unfold to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wish of one who was thy friend to-day.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Peace be to thee—long life, and joy, and health<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The blest allotment of thy sojourn here;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The portion of a child of God, thy wealth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When time must close, and earth shall disappear!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SOVEREIGN_OF_BABYLON" id="THE_SOVEREIGN_OF_BABYLON">THE SOVEREIGN OF BABYLON.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> monarch has opened his banqueting hall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For his thousand lords, and his ladies all!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sparkling wine to each guest is poured,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mirth swells high at the festal board,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where none hath the heart more careless and light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than he, whose glory must end to-night.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With the cup and the revel the king grows bold—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He calls for the vessels of silver and gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spoils his idolatrous father brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Mid the impious deeds which that proud one wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the temple of God, at Jerusalem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he and his nobles may drink from them.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Each sacred vessel they fill and raise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a laughing lip, as it speaks the praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the gods of metal, of wood and stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mocks at the name of the Holy One,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose finger this hour shall come so near:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That lip will quiver and blanch with fear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Monarch! what’s there, on the lighted wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That can fix thy gaze and thy spirit appall?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why is thy countenance changed, O king?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is it one of thy gods this awe can bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which makes thy knees together to smite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine eye so wild, and thy cheek so white?<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“A hand! a hand! it hath written a line!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who will the terrible words define?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A chain of gold shall encircle his neck—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A vesture of scarlet his form shall deck—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the third, as ruler, shall be that seer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With honor and power throughout Chaldea!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not all the wise and the learned of thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poor impotent one, shall explain that line!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the captive of Judah, him thy queen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has bid thee summon—let him be seen!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His eye prophetic receives its sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the Being, who caused the hand to write.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The slave is brought to the potentate!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To spurn his gifts, but to read his fate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom ’t is inscribed on the lofty wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Thou art weighed, found wanting, and now must fall!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy kingdom is numbered—the Persian and Mede<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall hence to thy throne and thy power succeed!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They come!—the foemen—nor sword nor flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall win for that monarch the morning light!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The haughty head where the crown was set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In dust is pillowed—with gore is wet!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye, who are trusting in honor and gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look on him now, and your strength behold!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_DEER_STRICKEN_BY_TORCH-LIGHT" id="THE_DEER_STRICKEN_BY_TORCH-LIGHT">THE DEER STRICKEN BY TORCH-LIGHT.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> arrow! the arrow is fast in his side!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And still through the forest they follow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The poor stricken deer, that has nowhere to hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dared not to pause where the cool waters glide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, leaping the brook, he would almost have died,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">One draught from its ripple to swallow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That deep-planted arrow! O how can he bear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The anguish of feeling it quiver,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When shook by the branches, the wave, or the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As forward he bounds, but without heeding where,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From thicket to crag, with the force of despair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To plunge in the cold, sweeping river?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They hunted him hard, till the sun in the west<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had sunk, while their aim he evaded.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At evening, he sought a calm refuge of rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dropped from pursuit, by his terrors oppressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the close branches, in verdure full-dressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By night and the covert o’ershaded.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But ah, the poor deer! they had doomed him to die!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For near the green turf where he laid him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They lighted the torch, and they brandished it high;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +<span class="i0">It glared through the boughs on his tender black eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fatally shone for the death-shaft to fly;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His beauty, his beaming betrayed him:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He cannot by flying now loosen the dart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The end of his tortures to quicken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By letting the life in one blood-gush depart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He seeks a retreat, like the warm, wounded heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, lone, slow, and silent, the victim of art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It dies, as a deer that is stricken.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3> +<a name="THE_DEATH_OF_SAPPHIRA" id="THE_DEATH_OF_SAPPHIRA"> +THE DEATH OF SAPPHIRA.</a> +<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Sapphira</span>, Sapphira, awake!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Alas! she is gone in the sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That but the archangel can break;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For life hath no slumber so deep.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is death! his pale ashes are cast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On those withered lips, where but now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An insult to Heaven was passed;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His dumbness hath followed the vow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A bolt from above, swift and sure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath blasted the pride of the clay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spirit, in boldness secure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In guilt hath been stricken away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O child of delusion! to stand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The chosen of Jesus among,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cover the fraud of thy hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By falsehood to him on thy tongue!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How vain, the deceit of the heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To shroud in a mantle so frail!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its perfidy, thus by its art.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To think from Omniscience to veil!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lost woman! but three hours before,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The form of thy partner in sin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was borne, wan and cold, from the door,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where thou didst so rashly come in.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And they, who had carried him out,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The clods o’er his bosom to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were waiting, the threshold about,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bear thee to darkness away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sapphira, could Mercy restore,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or Pity thy spirit recall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To light up its dwelling once more,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It should not thus hopelessly fall.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Mercy besought thee in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From death’s awful brink to recede;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To shun the despair and the pain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where she is forbidden to plead.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Pity’s warm tear-drops must roll<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The more, that she cannot relume<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clay whence the self-wounded soul<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath rushed to a suicide’s doom.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How potent, how maddening the love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O gold, of a mortal must be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To challenge an arm from above—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To stake earth and heaven for thee!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For Justice to Judgment will call;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And who shall their coming abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When wrath the most fearful of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“The wrath of the Lamb,” is defied?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p> +<a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +This piece originally illustrated an engraving. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="WILLIAM_AT_SEA" id="WILLIAM_AT_SEA">WILLIAM AT SEA.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Whilst</span> thou art away, where the proud waves are swelling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath thy light bark, ever mindful of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The days of thine absence, at home we are telling,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And counting the hours of our William at sea.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thou, whether cradled to sleep by the billow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or watching the sport of the spray and the foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If pensive on deck, or in dreams on thy pillow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We know hast thy soul rapt with visions of home.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We know, when the sun mounts the east in his glory,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or smiles a “good night,” as the west he descends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy heart, pointing back, to itself tells the story<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of mansion paternal, and kindred and friends.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when at the morning and evening devotion,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While bending with offerings of praise and of prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To God we commend thee afar on the ocean,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We feel thou art kneeling for us to him there.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While months on the waters, long months are before thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The two fluid worlds thou art tossing between—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cold deep below, and the skies bending o’er thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Alone by their changes will vary the scene.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or, if a bright isle, on the flood-waste upstarting,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rude ocean’s green oasis, rest thy glad eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T will fade as a cloud—as a phantom departing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T will sink in the circle that bounds sea and sky.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Should some white-winged ship, with her light pennon streaming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy heart on that wide watery desert to cheer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arise, like a star through night’s solitude beaming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With meteor swiftness she ’ll soon disappear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when the coy sea-bird, a wild ether-sailor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Comes near on her passage, for one language more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O! how wilt thou long, ere she flies thee, to hail her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To ask whither bound, and the tidings from shore!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, while so unstable, so pathless and lonely,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy way o’er that desolate deep may be found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is marked with the impress of Deity only;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His merciful arms will thy frailty surround.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is grand, ’t is ennobling, while feeling and knowing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His presence is power, and his banner is love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To look from that flood, to the firmament showing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bright shadowings-forth of his glory above.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, William, though tempest and terrors assail thee—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though clouds rolled on clouds hide the stars and the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy soul’s chosen Friend never, never will fail thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Winds and waves but obey that omnipotent <span class="smcap">One</span>.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While o’er and around thee thick darkness may gather;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When wide yawns the deep, and the surges swell high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy spirit may hear the kind voice of her Father,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Still whispering, “Be of good cheer; it is I.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And safe may he bear thee through perils and changes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Besetting his course, who so widely would roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then speed thy return from the land of the Ganges,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From pagod and painim! Dear William, come home.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come home, where the eyes beam through tears to behold thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where arms open wide to receive thee will be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And promise, while yet to the heart they infold thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To be, never after, our William at sea!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="MY_PORTRAIT" id="MY_PORTRAIT">MY PORTRAIT.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Well</span>, thou art done, cold, speechless thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet, in thy silence, with the power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A crowd of feelings deep to bring<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unknown until the present hour.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But wherefore done, to life so true?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Not human pride, nor vanity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could ask the artist hand to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And show the world a deed like thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And was it simple most, or kind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To have upon the canvass cast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My semblance, thus to leave behind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My shadow, when myself am past?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know not if another eye<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will ever weep beside thee, more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than mine does now, I know not why—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It never dropped such tears before.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I view thee as a piece, composed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To last, when I have passed from sight—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When time and earth to me are closed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To be in time and earthly light.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Perhaps ’t is this, that makes me weep—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The thought that I shall pass away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those, who have thee then to keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May glance at thee, and still be gay.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But why should grief be felt by me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For fear that others will not grieve?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what to others then will be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A shade of life, that I may leave?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still, from their deep, mysterious spring<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gush up these hot, resistless tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whilst thou, cold, heartless, stoic thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dost wear a smile that ’s set for years.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Years! Ah, but then, when years shall wipe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From being every line of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spirit, which thy prototype<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Enshrined, shall live eternally!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_WIDOWS_ONLY_SON" id="THE_WIDOWS_ONLY_SON">THE WIDOW’S ONLY SON.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">She</span> wrapped her in her sable cloak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And walked beside the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But seldom of her sorrow spoke,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Too full of grief was she!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T was this that made her heart so sad,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To view the ocean wide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The only son, that widow had,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Went out to sea and died.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then, in that great, rolling deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With solemn, tearful eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His mess-mates lowered him down, to sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till all the dead shall rise.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But where, among those waters vast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With ceaseless fall and swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her child to that repose had passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mother none could tell.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She therefore questioned wave on wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As up they heaved to shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If they had rolled across his grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whom she must see no more.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And often, when she marked a ship<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With full, returning sail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The color would forsake her lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And speech and vision fail.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, O! she thought about the one<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That spread its canvass white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To waft away her only son<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Forever from her sight!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But still, amid the bitter grief<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which wrung that widow’s heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her spirit felt the sweet relief<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That faith and hope impart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She knew her son had ever kept<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The path to heavenly rest—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, when he sank in death, he slept<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon a Saviour’s breast.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“My heavenly Father,” she would say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“I know the troubled sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But holds from me the precious clay:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My child ’s at home with thee!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_YOUNG_MOTHER" id="THE_YOUNG_MOTHER">THE YOUNG MOTHER.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Composed</span> in its beauty, the fair infant slept;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But still the young mother sat by it and wept:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She rocked not the cradle, she sang not the song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sleep of her dear, only child to prolong.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The same fleecy cover, so soft and so warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That oft wrapped it sleeping, lay light o’er its form;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its pillow was downy, and smooth was its bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet, that sad mother! her fond bosom bled.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She knew that no dream of her babe, in its rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was now of her voice, or its home on her breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She caught not the sound nor the balm of its breath:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She knew that her little one slumbered in death!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A hand with the pencil was called to portray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The features and form of her child as it lay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But false were the hues and the touches of art<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To paint the bright image enshrined in her heart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Its lustre was drawn from a glory on high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No pencil of earth could the likeness supply;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet on the canvass was mortal to trace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A smile the pure spirit had left on that face.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The skies, as they opened, their guest to receive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had shed, on the dust they allured it to leave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sign of the peace, of the joy, and the love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Encircling for aye the young angel above.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That mother rose calm, when the beautiful clay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must be from her sight laid forever away!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gloom left her soul, as a cloud leaves the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It whispered, “Thy will, O my Father, be done!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="EVENING_AT_ANDOVER_SEMINARY-HILL" id="EVENING_AT_ANDOVER_SEMINARY-HILL">EVENING AT ANDOVER SEMINARY-HILL.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I stood</span> on that majestic height,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The lofty Hill of Andover,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sacred science holds the light<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That beams to distant lands from her.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For there the school of sages stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where, from afar, disciples meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For lore divine, in holy bands<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To sit and learn at Wisdom’s feet.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Within its consecrated walls<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is kept and taught Jehovah’s will:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The <span class="smcap">LAW</span>, whose voice in thunder falls—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The <span class="smcap">GOSPEL</span>, whispering, “<em>Peace! be still!</em>”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The structures while I viewed around,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I seemed to breathe Mount’s Zion’s air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I set my foot with awe profound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As if the ark of God were there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Each earthly care was calm and dumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For holier thoughts the soul to fill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if the Shechinah had come<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To rest upon that reverend hill.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A mellow glory crowned its head;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And from its foot, in landscape wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Profusely nature’s charms were spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till in the distance vision died.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It was a summer day’s decline:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The drowsy flowers began to close;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breezes lulled, that stirred the vine;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all things tended to repose.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sun, adown the western skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was sinking fast to pass from view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calm as the righteous when he dies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To earth, in heaven to live anew.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thence, on edifice and site,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His golden smile was backward cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if he loved that favored height<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bless the longest and the last.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In eastern splendor, then arrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The full-orbed moon arose serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through evening’s hush and night’s cool shade<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To throw her lustre o’er the scene.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her silvery vesture wrapped in sheen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The stately seminary pile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fell on tree, and flower, and green,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where pearly dews distilled the while.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And through the chapel’s crystal shone<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her light, within the place of prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till bright-winged angels, from the throne<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Above, seemed met and hovering there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It was a scene—it was an hour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A spirit bowed in dust to raise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ennobled, till its every power,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Awaked to joy, was tuned to praise.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Clear as that sun, fair as that moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall thy dear Zion rise and shine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above her foes—Ah! Lord, how soon?—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When shall the ends of earth be thine?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="HYMN_OF_THE_PARTING_CLASS" id="HYMN_OF_THE_PARTING_CLASS">HYMN OF THE PARTING CLASS.</a></h3> + +<p class="small likeh3">SUNG BY THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">We</span> feel the parting angel’s hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is in our midst, to loose the band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So close, so sacred, and so dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That long hath bound us, brethren, here.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No more within this hallowed place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">United at the throne of grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our prayers shall rise—our voices pour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In praise, when this, our song is o’er.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To each we hear the Saviour say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We to his work must hence away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For great the field—the laborers few!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What wilt thou, Lord, have us to do?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O send thy Spirit from above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fire our hearts with heavenly love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And light our lips with truth, that we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May, witnesses, go forth for thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And may we count all else as loss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To spread the glory of thy cross—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From shades and death redeemed, to bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The priceless jewels of our King.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On distant islands of the sea—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On heathen shores our lot may be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To dying souls to bear the bread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And balm of life on Calvary shed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, though our lines be marked afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some beneath a foreign star,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We may look upward to the Sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of righteousness, and still be one.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when our works of faith are past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In joy we ’ll meet on high at last;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there, in praise, our voices swell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The song, where enters no farewell.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SPECKLED_ONE" id="THE_SPECKLED_ONE">THE SPECKLED ONE.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Poor</span> speckled one! none else will deign<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To waft thy name around;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, let me take it on my strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To give it air and sound.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yes—air and sound, low child of earth!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For these are oft the things<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That give a name its greatest worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its gorgeous plumes and wings.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But do not shun me thus, and hop<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Affrighted from my way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dismiss thy terrors—turn, and stop;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hear what I may say.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meek, harmless thing, afraid of man?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This truly should not be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then calmly pause, and let me scan<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My Maker’s work in thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For both of us to him belong;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We ’re fellow-creatures here;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And power should not be armed with wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor weakness filled with fear.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know it is thy humble lot<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To burrow in a hole—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have a form I envy not,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And that without a soul.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In motion, attitude and limb<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I see thee void of grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that a look supremely grim,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reigns o’er thy solemn face.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But thou for this art not to blame;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor should it make us load<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With obloquy, and scorn, and shame<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The honest name of <span class="smcap">Toad</span>.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, though so low on nature’s scale—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In presence so uncouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou ne’er hast told an evil tale<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of falsehood, or of truth.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy thoughts are ne’er on malice bent—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor hands to mischief prone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet thy heart to discontent;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though spurned, and poor and lone.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No coveting nor envy burns<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In thy bright golden eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That calm and innocently turns<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On all below the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy cautious tongue and sober lip<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No words of folly pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor, are they found to taste and sip<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The madness of the glass.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy frugal meal is often drawn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From earth, and wood, and stone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when thy means by these are gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou seem’st to live on none.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I hear that in an earthen jar<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sealed close, shut up alive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From food, drink, air, sun, moon and star,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou ’lt live and even thrive:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And that no moan, or murmuring sound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will issue from the lid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of thy dark dwelling under ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When it is deeply hid.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou hast, as ’t were, a secret shelf<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereon is a supply,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of nourishment within thyself,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Concealed from mortal eye.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Methinks this self-sustaining art<br /></span> +<span class="i1">’T were well for us to know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To keep us up in flesh and heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When outer means grow low.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Could we contain our riches thus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On such mysterious shelves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why, none could rob or beggar us;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unless we lost ourselves!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But ah! my Toadie, there ’s the rub,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With every human breast—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To live as in the cynic’s tub,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And yet be self-possessed!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, how to let no boast get round<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beyond our tub, to show<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we in head and heart are sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is one great thing to know.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, the prison-staves and hoop<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To let no murmur through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">However hard we find the coop,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is greater still to do.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then go, thou sage, resigned and calm;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amid thy low estate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to thy burrow bear the palm<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For victory over fate.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We conquer, when we meekly bear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The lot we cannot shape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hug to death the ills and care<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From which there ’s no escape.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_MOON_OF_A_WINTRY_NIGHT" id="THE_MOON_OF_A_WINTRY_NIGHT">THE MOON OF A WINTRY NIGHT.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Moon</span>, thou art wading through the gathered snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That o’er us, on the fields of ether spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Threatens, ere morning to be here below,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To lie where our poor mortal feet must tread.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy face is muffled in a gelid haze,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That shrouds its lustre like a frozen veil;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kills the twinkling of the starry rays,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till all on high looks cheerless, dim, and pale.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It gives almost the ague, to behold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The skies so rayless, yet so far from dark;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when our hearth’s white ashes, tired and cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We stir in vain to find one pleasant spark.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, by to-morrow’s eve our parts may shift,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thou be shining there, serene and clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While we are hedged by many a frigid drift;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or sleigh-bells shrill may pierce the tingling ear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How dreary then the scene for thy mild beams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To light, and for the burning stars to view!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hard ice coating all the lakes and streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And one dead white where late gay flowerets grew.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The naked trees, that stand with buried feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like skeletons, will slender shadows throw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On what seems spread as nature’s winding-sheet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While her slain beauties lie concealed below.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, but to look abroad on vale and hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where one pale uniform invests the whole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though it should make one’s vital current chill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It must not let in winter to the soul!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It must not bring a frost upon the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To kill affection’s tendrils—friendship’s root,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where vernal shoots and buds should ever start,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And grow with summer flowers and autumn fruit:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor cause the streams of thought to be congealed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, pressed beneath incumbent ice, grow low;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, like the fount that irrigates the field,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Make bloom and verdure spring, where’er they flow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It must not make our shrinking fancies flee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like birds of summer from the cold withdrawn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But wise, the mind should, like the prudent bee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On honey banquet, though the flowers are gone.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor must it strike the hopeful spirit dumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or quench the beaming of her upturned eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or close her ear, or make her members numb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere her thank-offerings on the altar lie.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, fair Moon, methinks I like the best<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To see thy silvery lustre sprinkled here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When these bare branches all appear full-dressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In some more gentle season of the year.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I love to see it, mingled with the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Falling to bathe the sleeping buds and flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soft, and silent, coolly streaming through<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The whispering leaves, that clothe the summer bowers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I love to see thy beaming mantle trail<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Along the flower-sprent borders of the rill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With rich, deep shadows stamped, o’erspread the vale,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or bind the forehead of the silent hill.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I love to see thee through the foliage peep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where, one soft hour before, the robin sung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her vesper song; the while, in downy sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With peaceful breast she guards her callow young.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I love to see thee, when the whip-poor-will<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Moans in the hedge behind the cottage-eaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the plaintive crickets, hidden, trill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their harvest-hymn among the golden sheaves.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But these are tender memories—ay, and more—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fresh budding hope from memory’s root that grows,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To see earth clothed in beauty as before,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When thou and we have struggled through the snows.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then come, sweet Moon, and fondly smile on me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From thy pure azure home, with face serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While I will look abroad, and up to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bless the great Creator of the scene.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Others may call thee fickle—faithless—strange,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When veiled in part, or wholly from their view;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, though twelve times a year thou <em>seems’t</em> to change,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Again twelve times I ever find thee true.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is our gross planet, heaving misty shrouds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or rolled before thee, that our darkness brings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just as earth’s bulk or vapor hides or clouds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our glorious view of higher, holier things.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="TOM_TAR" id="TOM_TAR">TOM TAR.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I ’ll</span> tell you now about Tom Tar,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sailor stout and bold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who o’er the ocean roamed so far,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To countries new and old.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tom was a man of thousands; he<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would ne’er complain nor frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though high and low the wind and sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Might toss him up and down.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Amid the waters dark and deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He had the happy art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all around was storm, to keep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fair weather in his heart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though winds were wild, and waves were rough,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He ’d always cast about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And find within he ’d calm enough<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To stand the storms without.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“For naught,” said Tom, “is ever gained<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By sighs for what we lack;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor can it mend a vessel strained,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To let our temper crack.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And sure I am, the worst of storms,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That any man should dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is that, which in the bosom forms,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And musters to the head.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Serene, and ever self-possessed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His mess-mates he would cheer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And often put their fears to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When dangers gathered near.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If on the rocks the ship was cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And surges swept the deck,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tom Tar was ever found the last,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who would forsake the wreck.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when his only hat and shoes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The waters plucked from him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why, these, he felt, were small to lose,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Could he keep up and swim!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then through the billows, foam, and spray,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That rose on every hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He ’d, somehow, always find a way<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of getting safe to land.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The secret was, the fear and love<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of Heaven had filled his soul:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His trust was firm in One above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Howe’er the seas might roll.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Tom had sailed to many a shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And many a wonder seen:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stories he could tell would more<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than fill a magazine.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ’d seen mankind in every state,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Almost, that man can know;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But envied not the rich and great,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor scorned the poor and low.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The monarch in his sight had stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Superb, in glittering vest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The savage, too, that roams the wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In skins and feathers dressed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The tribes of many an isle he knew;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And beasts, and birds, and flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fruits, of many a shape and hue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In lands remote from ours.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ’d seen the wide-winged albatross<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her breast in ocean lave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bold sea-lions, playing, toss<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their heads above the wave.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ’d seen the dolphin, while his back<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Went flashing to the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A swarm of flying fish attack,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And swallow every one!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The porpoise and the spouting whale<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had sported in his view;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hungry sharks pursued his sail,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As if they ’d eat the crew.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And ever, when Tom Tar got home,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The children, at their play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were glad to have the sailor come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And greet them by the way.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, oft, some curious stone, or shell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The laughing girls and boys<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would find, that on their aprons fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To put among their toys.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“These pearly shells,” said he, “I found<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where gloomy waters roar:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These polished stones, so smooth and round,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rough surges washed ashore.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Though small to us a pebble seems,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T is made and marked by One,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gave the warmth, and lit the beams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of yon great shining sun.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And when these pretty shells I find,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Along the ocean strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their beauteous finish brings to mind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their Maker’s perfect hand.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“When on the wildest shore I’m thrown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And far from human eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think of him who made the stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And shell, and sea, and sky.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“For he ’s my friend, and I am his,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though cold and rough the blast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My safest guide I know he is,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where’er my lot is cast.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Tom passed on, the children said,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“These treasures from afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He brought us! Blessings on his head!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For he ’s a good Tom Tar!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SEAMANS_HYMN" id="THE_SEAMANS_HYMN">THE SEAMAN’S HYMN.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Landmen</span>, on your downy pillows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While your eyes are sealed in sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seamen, tossed ’mid foam and billows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Roam, for you, a boisterous deep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the glorious light of day<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is on your homes so peaceful dawning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along our pathless, troubled way<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The surge swells high, the flood is yawning.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When earth’s flowers to you are blooming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or your hearths are bright and warm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We behold the wild waves booming,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mount the shrouds, and brave the storm.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Singing birds your hearing greet—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Your hearts the kindred tone rejoices;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While winds, that on our canvass beat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And roaring ocean join their voices.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, to meet the High and Holy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When ye to his throne repair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O before him, meek and lowly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bow for us, as suppliants there!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When his blessed day appears,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dearest, best of all the seven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your souls the gospel herald cheers;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But none tells us of rest and heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Zion, bid thy sons and daughters<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Often, on the bended knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry to Him, who rules the waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the wanderers o’er sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, to Thee, the seaman’s Friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our guide—our light—our ark abiding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Saviour, we our all commend,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While time’s rude waves in frailty riding.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_MARINERS_SONG_OF_DEPARTURE" id="THE_MARINERS_SONG_OF_DEPARTURE">THE MARINER’S SONG OF DEPARTURE.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><span class="smcap">While</span> o’er the bright bay,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With her streamers at play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our bark in her beauty is gliding,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As brothers, are we,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The glad sons of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our own darling element riding.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Good pilot, adieu;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For the skies are all blue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yonder, blue billows are bounding.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">We speed from the port,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To be off by the fort,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While her gun to the sunrise is sounding.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">We leave all behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That a warm heart can bind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In home, love, and friendship endearing;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">While hope flies before,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For a far, foreign shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the hand at the rudder is steering.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">And well do we know<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The proud waters below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hence are by us to be ridden;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">’Mid the corals and caves<br /></span> +<span class="i4">There are mariners’ graves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dark wrecks, and lost treasures deep hidden.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Yet, before our frail bark,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Be the way light or dark,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Sun, and the Star that we follow,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Is He, who unbinds<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or enchains the strong winds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose hand holds the seas in its hollow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">If o’er the bright skies<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The wild storm-spirit rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spread his black wings full of thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our canvass we ’ll reef,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or heave-to for relief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And safely his pinions pass under.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">And so, ’mid the strife<br /></span> +<span class="i4">On the flood-waves of life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Heaven in our ark lowly bending<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For help would we cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Till the dove, from on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Appears with the peace-branch descending.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Thus, we’ve friend, love, and home,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Wheresoe’er we may roam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wide seas, from pole to equator—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">We ’ve a light, and high-tower,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In the name and the power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of him, who is ocean’s Creator.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SEA-EAGLES_FALL" id="THE_SEA-EAGLES_FALL">THE SEA-EAGLE’S FALL.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">An</span> Eagle, on his towering wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hung o’er the summer sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ne’er did airy, feathered king<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Look prouder there than he.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spied the finny tribes below,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amid the limpid brine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And felt it now was time to know<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereon he was to dine.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He saw a noble, shining fish<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So near the surface swim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He felt at once a hungry wish<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To make a feast of him.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then straight he took his downward course;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A sudden plunge he gave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pouncing, seized, with murderous force,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His tempter in the wave.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He struck his talons firm and deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Within the slippery prize,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hope his ruffian grasp to keep;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And high and dry to rise.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But ah! it was a fatal stoop,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As ever monarch made;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, for that rash—that cruel swoop,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He soon most dearly paid!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fish had too much gravity<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To yield to this attack.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His feet the eagle could not free<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From off the scaly back.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ’d seized on one too strong and great;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His mastery now was gone!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on, by that prepondering weight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And downward, he was drawn.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor found he here the element<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where he could move with grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flap, and dash, his pinions went,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In ocean’s wrinkled face.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They could not bring his talons out,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His forfeit life to save;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And planted thus, he writhed about<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon his gaping grave.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He raised his head, and gave a shriek,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bid adieu to light:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The water bubbled in his beak—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He sank from human sight!<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The children of the sea came round,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The foreigner to view.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see an airy monarch drowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To them was something new!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some gave a quick, astonished look,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And darted swift away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While some his parting plumage shook,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And nibbled him for prey.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! who that saw that bird at noon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So high and proudly soar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could think how awkwardly—how soon,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He ’d fall to rise no more?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though glory, majesty, and pride<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were his an hour ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deprived of all, that eagle died,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For stooping once too low!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, have you ever known or heard<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of biped, from his sphere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Descending, like that silly bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To buy a fish so dear?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_CAGED_LION" id="THE_CAGED_LION">THE CAGED LION.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Lion</span>, like a captive king,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sad behind thy prison grate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Monarch, how I long to bring<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Back to thee thy lost estate!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where thy royal kindred live—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where thy native sky is warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sufferer, how I long to give<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Freedom to that noble form!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gladly would I know thee there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bounding over Afric’s plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wildly, with the desert air<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wafting wide thy flowing mane.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Are there words that can describe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What thou wast, at liberty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When “The Lion of the tribe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of Judah” names his type in thee?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here, beneath thy keeper’s hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the blasts of winter freeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Think’st thou of that palmy land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy mild country o’er the seas?<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Seen but through thy prison bars,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Round thee set so strong and thick,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do not sun, and moon, and stars<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Make thy cowering spirit sick?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Grace, and majesty, and power<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were thy gifts by nature made;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, in one unhappy hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All to lose, wast thou betrayed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When thou first was snared and caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Never after to be free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How thy mighty spirit wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In thee, like a troubled sea!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But thou didst not, couldst not think<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the deep indignity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To which thou then wast doomed to sink—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the exile thou must be.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh! that quenched and languid eye<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tells me of a pining heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Homesick prisoner, sooner die<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than remain the thing thou art.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Liberty to me and mine—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Liberty is life and breath!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So no less to thee and thine—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bonds to both but lingering death.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_TRAVELLER_AT_THE_RED_SEA" id="THE_TRAVELLER_AT_THE_RED_SEA">THE TRAVELLER AT THE RED SEA.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">At</span> last have I found thee, thou dark, rolling sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I gaze on thy face, and I listen to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With spirit o’erawed by the sight and the sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While mountain and desert frown gloomy around.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thee, mighty deep, from afar I behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which God swept apart for his people of old—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Egypt’s proud army, unstained by their blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Received on thy bed, to entomb in thy flood.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I cast my eye out, where the cohorts went down:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A throng of pale spectres, no waters can drown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With banner and blades, seem to rise on the waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As Pharaoh’s bold hosts rushed in arms to their graves.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But quick from the light of the skies they withdraw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At silent Omnipotence shrinking with awe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each sinks away in his billowy shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From him who walked here, clothed in fire and a cloud.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I stand by the pass, the freed Hebrews then trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sustained by the hand of Jehovah, dry-shod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And think how the song of salvation, they sang,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With praise to his name, through the wilderness rang.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our Father, who then didst thine Israel guide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Console, and rebuke in their wanderings wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From these gloomy waters, through this desert drear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O still in life’s maze, to thy pilgrim be near!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let sins, that would hold in their service, or slay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul, that would break from their bondage away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forever be drowned in the blood of thy Son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who o’er sin and death hath the victory won.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whilst thou, day by day, wilt thy manna bestow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give, for my thirst, the Rock-fountain to flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Refreshed by the way, will I speed to the clime<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of rest for the weary, beyond earth and time.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_HEBREW_CAPTIVES" id="THE_HEBREW_CAPTIVES">THE HEBREW CAPTIVES.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Our</span> altars they razed, and our temples profaned!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood of our prophets and kindred they drained!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And us, from our desolate homes did they bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afar, the cold chains of the Painim to wear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And they, who had carried us captive, drew nigh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They looked on our woes with an insolent eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our burdens were heavy, our fetters were strong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, they required of us mirth and a song!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We hung up our harps on the willows to sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Babylon’s rivers we sat down to weep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The song of the Lord, as too holy to sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shut in our souls, on that dark heathen ground.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We thought of our Zion, and sent her a sigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By each gentle breeze, that went silently by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But poured not the strains in the proud Painim’s ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That God and his angels will hearken to hear!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="FRAGMENTS_FROM_ESTHER_A_POEM" id="FRAGMENTS_FROM_ESTHER_A_POEM">FRAGMENTS FROM “ESTHER,” A POEM.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> monarch of Persia has wrapped o’er his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The vesture, whose jewels emblazoned the throne:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His lovely young queen, who in sackcloth is dressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is far from his presence, and weeping alone.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza-break"> +* * * *<br /> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And who in behalf of her people shall sue<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For mercy? To whom will the sovereign give ear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is death now to be, in his kingdom, a Jew—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T is death in his presence uncalled to appear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The wife of his bosom that peril will take!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The helpless young Jewess, so gentle and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To live with her people, or die for their sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will go to her lord, and her nation declare.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For little he deems that his idolized bride,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The joy of his heart—the delight of his eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is born of that race whom the Persians deride—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A people, his nation oppress and despise.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There ’s wine at the palace, and feasting, and mirth;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In Esther’s still chamber there ’s fasting, and prayer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he with the crown, has the homage of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She calls on her God her doomed people to spare.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She thinks of her fathers in Egypt’s dark land—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She thinks of the bush, as in Horeb it burned;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She knows who the hearts of the kings hath in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To turn them, as rivers of water are turned.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To him, for support, and for light to her mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She sends up the cries of her soul from the dust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, rising to go to the king, is resigned<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To do this and perish, if perish she must.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza-break"> +* * * *<br /> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With fasting and tears she is languid and pale;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But o’er her young face beams the sunrise of soul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flesh, though but feeble, and ready to fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is urged to its point by the spirit’s control.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The <em>woman</em> within her is timid and faint;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The <em>holy believer</em>, unawed and serene;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She goes to the presence, adorned as a <em>saint</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With power that has never invested the <em>queen</em>.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza-break"> +* * * *<br /> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And now are her people to safety restored—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To peace, and their rights, when resistance had failed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A woman in weakness, who drew on the Lord<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For strength, o’er the mighty of earth hath prevailed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fair Jewess, the tears thou hast dropped in the dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As pearls, to Jehovah are precious and bright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hand, that in sorrow has here been thy trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will crown thee with joy in the kingdom of light.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="GONE_IN_HER_BEAUTY" id="GONE_IN_HER_BEAUTY">GONE IN HER BEAUTY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">O</span>! she is gone! the wintry blasts, that sweep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wild round her mansion, trouble not her sleep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gone in her beauty! Fast the drifting snows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall cold, but harmless, o’er her deep repose!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here, in her circle of its gem bereft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love hath but tears to fill the place she left.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sigh calls to sigh, from aching bosoms drawn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Void gives to void the mournful echo, “<em>gone!</em>”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Spring will return, and bring around her door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet opening flowers, their odors there to pour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Striving to win her forth, who planted them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once more to smile that they adorn the stem.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, must they wait her, till they die away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She was a fairer, lovelier flower than they,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snapped off in blooming! ere a leaf could fade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast into darkness! wrapped in silent shade!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! she is gone; and where shall burdened grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pour forth her fountains for the soul’s relief?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not to the dust to nourish earthly weeds:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They yield no balsam while the spirit bleeds!<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not unto death let sorrow’s waters flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to death’s victor may the weeper go!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His risen glory, chasing mortal gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shows grief a rainbow, bending o’er the tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_NUN" id="THE_NUN">THE NUN.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Fair</span> penitent, with rosary,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And cross and veil, in gloomy cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What guilty deed was done by thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To cause thee here immured to dwell?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come forward, and present thy cause;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That we may clearly judge, and know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If violated human laws<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Imprison and afflict thee so:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or if it be some secret sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That haunts thy contrite soul with fears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here sequesters thee within<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The place of fasting, gloom, and tears?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Art thou the guiltiest of thy race?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why, thou art human, it is true;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which is alone enough for grace<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To have renewing work to do.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, can devotion, warm and deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy duty’s bounds so closely set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That faith may plough, and sow, and reap<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By trials shunned, instead of met?<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What ray of truth, revealed, would thus<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Make of a tender opening soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A close, dark blue convolvulus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And give its bloom this inward roll?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dost thou the never-fading crown<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of life and joy intend to win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By here supinely sitting down,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where others but the race begin?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And dost thou think to gain the palm<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By hiding from thy Saviour’s foes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or hope in Gilead’s sacred balm<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A cure for self-inflicted woes?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I never saw a Nun before;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And therefore claim indulgence now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I presume to question more<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than courtesy might, else, allow:<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As one, then, who in darkness pleads,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For light, I ask to be informed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How, by a string of pegs and beads,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A soul is raised, or fed, or warmed.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tell me, thou sober <em>cabalist</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What is the potent, hidden charm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hung on that string, or in its twist<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Contorted, for repelling harm?<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And is thy spirit kept so faint,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It cannot mount to God above;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here must substitute a saint,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In image, for a heavenly love?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Has He, who lived and died for us—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose gifts are light and liberty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left in his Word the <em>mitimus</em><br /></span> +<span class="i2">That here confines and fetters thee?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Does He assign a living tomb<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For souls, endowed with vital grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or need surrounding convent gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To show the radiance of his face?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, pensive Nun, now what ’s the chart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That he has drawn, and left below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That by it every pious heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May follow on the Lord to know?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far from temptation, in retreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Did he consume his earthly days?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With houseless head, and weary feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What were his works? and where his ways?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! get thy spirit’s wings unfurled!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hide not thy candle, if ’t is lit:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be <em>in</em>, but be not <em>of</em> the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If thou wouldst shine to lighten it.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come out, and show that face demure;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And see, if, smit on either cheek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy righteous soul would then endure<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To turn the other, and be meek.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, let me tell thee, coy recluse,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If we are gold, we must be tried;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If stones, we must be hewn for use,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or by the builder cast aside.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The axe and chisel, we must bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To give us smoothness, shape, and size,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are in the world—the furnace there;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For Heaven the gold and silver tries.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If we are salt to salt the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ah, then, our savor, to be known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must be diffused; for what ’s the worth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of salt <em>en masse</em>, boxed up alone?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The touchstone, where we must inquire<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If we have safely hid our life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is found in pitfall, flood, and fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Allurements sweet, and bitter strife.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come out! behold the billowy seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The flowery earth, and shining skies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say wherefore God created these;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And then, fair Nun, thy beauteous eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Was it for thee to turn and slight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The glorious things he spread to view—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give earth, ocean, air, and light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And freedom, for a dismal mew?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! if beneath some lawless vow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To man, in self-delusion made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An heir of heaven is brought to bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That vow were better broke than paid.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What binds thee here? or who shall set<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His name endorsed a pledge for thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Christ has died to pay thy debt,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And burst the tomb to make thee free?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The world’s the great arena, where<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The fight of faith must well be fought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each good warrior seen to wear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The armor for the victory wrought.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How dost thou know but it may be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy foe, thy tempter, who has found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This cunning way to corner thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To keep thee from the battle-ground?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come forth, thou timid, hampered one,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And doff that outward, odd disguise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That cumbers thee, if thou wouldst run,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or fight the fight, to win the prize.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come! from the bushel take thy light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And give its radiance room to play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bind on thy shoes and armor tight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And up, and to the field away!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="TREES_FOR_THE_PILGRIMS_WREATH" id="TREES_FOR_THE_PILGRIMS_WREATH">TREES FOR THE PILGRIM’S WREATH.</a></h3> + +<div class="quote-container"> +<div class="quote"> +<p>Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience expe­rience, +and expe­rience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Romans</span> v. 3-5.<br /> +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Tribulation</span>, if by loss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or by thorny gain, the cross,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art not a barren tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeds of Patience drop from thee.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Patience, bitter from thy root<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upward, till we reach the fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast golden grains to sow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence Experience full shall grow.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Broad Experience, rank and dark;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick in leaves, and rough in bark;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through thy dubious shade we grope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till we grasp the bough of Hope.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hope, we ’re not ashamed, with thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Showered by drops from Calvary,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thy branches shoot and bloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through a Saviour’s broken tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Trees, whereof the pilgrim weaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For his crown the mingled leaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wreaths of you are rich and bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth ’s the shade, and heaven ’s the light.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_MUSHROOMS_SOLILOQUY" id="THE_MUSHROOMS_SOLILOQUY">THE MUSHROOM’S SOLILOQUY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">O what</span>, and whence am I, ’mid damps and dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And darkness, into sudden being thrust?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What was I yesterday? and what will be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perchance, to-morrow, seen or heard of me?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Poor, lone, unfriended, ignorant, forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear the new, full glory of the morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the garden wall I stand aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all before me, beauty, show, and pride.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! why did nature shoot me up to light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thing unfit for use—unfit for sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Less like her work, than like a piece of art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whirled out and trimmed exact in every part?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Unlike the graceful shrub and flexile vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No fruit, nor branch, nor leaf, nor bud is mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No humming-bird, nor butterfly, nor bee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will come to cheer, caress or flatter me.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No beauteous flower adorns my humble head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No spicy odors on the air I shed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here I ’m stationed in my sober suit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With only top and stem—I ’ve scarce a root.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Untaught of my beginning and my end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know not whence I sprang, or where I tend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, I will wait and trust, and ne’er presume<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To question <span class="smcap">Justice</span>—I, a frail Mushroom!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_SPIRIT_AND_THE_MOUNTAIN" id="THE_SPIRIT_AND_THE_MOUNTAIN">THE SPIRIT AND THE MOUNTAIN.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Mountain</span>, with thy firm old foot<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fast beside the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What was in thy keeping put,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Prisoned under thee?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Hark, and hear the shuddering ground!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Feel it rock and quake!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Struggling fires, beneath me bound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strive their chains to break.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mountain, with a cloudy vest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Girded o’er thy heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does it pierce thine aged breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When its lightnings dart?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“No:—beneath me far, the crash<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the bolt is felt:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, the fiery chain and flash<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But adorn my belt.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mountain, with a snowy crown<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stainless on thy brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou never cast it down—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Never, never bow?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“When the mandate I shall hear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From my Maker’s throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will bow and disappear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hence to be unknown.”<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mountain, holding proud and high<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thine old hoary head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What is written on the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou so long hast read?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Brighter than the stars and sun<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shining over me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I behold the name of <span class="smcap">One</span><br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou must die to see!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mountain, bold thine eloquence—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Glowing is thy speech;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mighty import flashes thence;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What is it to teach?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Thoughts of Him, before whose breath<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I shall melt away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While of thee, soul—spirit, death<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ne’er shall quench a ray!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_FALL_OF_THE_STATUE" id="THE_FALL_OF_THE_STATUE">THE FALL OF THE STATUE.</a></h3> + +<p class="small likeh3">A SCENE OF THE REVOLUTION.</p> + +<div class="small"> + +<p>This declaration [of Independence] was received by the people +with transports of joy. Public rejoicings took place in various +parts of the Union. In New York, the statue of George III. was +taken down; and the lead, of which it was composed, was converted +into musket-balls.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Goodrich’s History of the United States.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">There</span> stood in New York, when, the times growing warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All o’er our fair country had gathered the storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which wore in its coming, so fearful a form,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But left us the rainbow of peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An image of royalty, stately and proud—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A leaden old king, where his votaries bowed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While true friends of Liberty marked it, and vowed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That its honors should speedily cease.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when our brave statesmen the article signed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Declaring us free, with pure freedom of mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Columbia’s true sons, feeling strongly inclined<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To learn how the statue was based,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Assembled forthwith; and, besieging it, found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the king in head, body and limb was quite sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And had of good lead in him many a pound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which might be more usefully placed.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, “Down with the ponderous George the Third!”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From a mingling of voices together, was heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With shoutings aloud, as they gave out the word,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“Down with it! let it come down!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We ’ll soon transform his grave highness of lead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turn him to balls from the feet to the head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then shall the mouths of our muskets be fed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With him of the throne and the crown.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“So now for the fall! for our Sages have met,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their names to a broad Declaration have set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they are resolved, from this moment, to get<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the king independent and free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to give by their valor a nation her birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or to empty their veins, a free gift to the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Liberty’s name, to betoken her worth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To us and the millions to be.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Columbia’s wrongs have gone to the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is time that her blood and her spirit should rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above her oppressors, till tyranny flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And leaves her unfettered, to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flag of a nation instead of a chain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The palm of her triumph, ’mid weakness and pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er them that were mighty, but struggled in vain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To force her their shackles to wear.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And, no leaden monarch will we have to stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proclaiming our vassalage here, in the land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of lovely Manhattan! We ’ll each lend a hand<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +<span class="i2">To give him a jerk or a pull,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flat to the ground, in a trice, as we bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His dignified form, it shall merrily ding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sound all around how we honor the king,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And pay our respects to John Bull.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“This, this is the season for trying men’s souls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nerves of their arms, and the worth of their polls!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, we ’ll have his Majesty <em>over the coals</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And make him the first that shall <em>run</em>:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, heated to melting, he hides in the mould,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We ’ll hold him there still, till new-shapen and cold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, off he shall go, like a tale that is told,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the voice of the thundering gun!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The discomposed Sovereign with us shall unite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fly at his friends for our cause in the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To scatter his subjects—to purchase our right—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The land of oppression to clear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, to whom, whizzing, his monarch shall come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the form of a ball, ’mid the noise of the drum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flashes and smoke, will have finished the sum<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of his deeds as a royalist here!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, flat to the earth was his Eminence cast!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dust rose above him, and mounted the blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While a bevy of Rome’s feathered sentinels passed,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Raised their wings, and huzzaed as he fell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, how the proud royalist felt, when the lead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his late British Majesty came at his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While some dropped before it, and some turned and fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is more than a <em>Yankee</em> can tell.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_BIRDS_MATERNAL_CARE" id="THE_BIRDS_MATERNAL_CARE">THE BIRD’S MATERNAL CARE.</a></h3> + +<p class="small likeh3">The following is but versified statement of a touching, literal fact +that occurred not long since a few rods from my own door.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">A shadowy</span> tree, that grew beside<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its city owner’s door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its branches threw so high and wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That many a bird could sing, and hide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Among the leaves it bore.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A robin came, and built her nest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In that green rustling tree.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At evening, there she sank to rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And furled her weary wings, as blest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As little bird could be.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Upon her side her drowsy head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath her folded wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She pillowed, while the night-hours fled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When morning flushed the east with red,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She ’d wake, and mount, and sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Five pretty eggs of azure hue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In that soft nest she laid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So clear and vivid was their blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like polished balls they shone to view,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of purest sapphire made.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And many a day she brooded o’er<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Those treasures, till they grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In what the shells contained before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To something different—something more—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Young birds came peeping through!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Five little baby birds were there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In that fond robin’s nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All callow; and their mother’s care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was now to find their daily fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And shield them with her breast.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her tiny game, or berries ripe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From some far distant stem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She ’d bring them; then her beak she ’d wipe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sit upon a twig, and pipe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A mother’s tune to them.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At length, the owner of the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i2">One dismal, stormy day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His window from the shade to free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The better in his room to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some branches lopped away.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He dropped the very bough that hung<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A curtain o’er the nest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun burnt through the clouds, and flung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fire the helpless brood among,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till they were sore oppressed.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their tender mother then was seen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To stand on weary feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where now they missed the leafy green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one wing raised her babes to screen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From sultry noontide heat.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, patient there, she day by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon her nest’s round edge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood up to keep the sun away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While, shaded thus, her nestlings lay<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till time their forms could fledge.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, when the master of the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beheld what love and care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within a mother bird could be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wished in vain that he could see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bough still living there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus, thoughtless we may often pain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or grieve a feeling heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein the anguish must remain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While we may wish, but wish in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To lay or lull the smart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A good destroyed ’s a fearful thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And so ’s a good undone!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We, serving self, on self may bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A heavier ill—a keener sting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than what we sought to shun.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is little acts of good or ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That make our vast account.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No <em>one</em>, though great, does <em>all</em> God’s will<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Small drops the caves of ocean fill;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sands compose the mount.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="SONG" id="SONG">SONG.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Little</span> bird, little bird, with thy beautiful eye.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Looking as if ’t were cut out of a star,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How do I know but it once was on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beaming through evening, sublime from afar?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I cannot say what thy Maker divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When he composed thee an optic so bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making the skill of his finger to shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Drew from those high upper regions of light.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Little bird, little bird, with thy spirit-like wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fleet as the air,—as the rainbow in hues,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How can I tell but the Ruler of kings<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Formed them by those his blest ministers use?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Were not the fancy-like tints of thy plume,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was not the delicate down of thy breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Caught from the flowers that in Paradise bloom,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Plucked from the couch where the weary ones rest?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Little bird, little bird, with thy musical voice<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tuned like a seraph’s, deep, flowing, and clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was not thy melody, touching and choice,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Taught by some angel, who visited here?<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What, what, pretty fairy! so soon must thou go,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fleet as a vision, without a reply,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just like all other bright treasures below,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Charming a moment, to change or to fly?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_WHITE_MOTH" id="THE_WHITE_MOTH">THE WHITE MOTH.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Beware</span>, pretty Moth, so unsullied and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beware of the lamp’s dazzling rays!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is not a drop of the sun! but a light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shines to allure little rovers by night;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Away! there is death in the blaze.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O why didst thou come from thy covert of green,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The vine, round my window so bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pop in to know what was here to be seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forsaking thy shield, and escaping thy screen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hazarding life by the flight?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The down on thy limbs and thy bosom so pure<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That flame would most fatally singe:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nothing thy beautiful wings can insure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From harm and from pain beyond mending or cure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If caught by their delicate fringe.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Return, giddy wanderer, safe to the vine;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And breathe in the fresh evening air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, look at the stars, as they twinkle and shine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cling to a leaf, or the tendrils that twine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My soft little eavesdropper, there!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then, by a song I will sing, thou shalt know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why thus I have lifted my arm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To scare thee away from thy luminous foe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That threw out its beams, as a snare, and a show<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To tempt the unwary to harm.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, I through the day, have been guarded by One,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who, greater and wiser than I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has pitied my frailty; and forced me to shun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Illusive temptations, where I might have run<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The peril of sporting to die.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T was kindness from Him, to whose care I commend<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Myself through the darkness of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That taught me so quick to come in, as a friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between thee and evil, thy life to defend;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pretty Moth, so unsullied and white.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="EDWARD_AND_CHARLES" id="EDWARD_AND_CHARLES">EDWARD AND CHARLES.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> brothers went out with their father to ride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where they looked for the flowers, that, along the way-side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So lately were blooming and fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But their delicate heads by the frost had been nipped;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their stalks by the blast were all twisted and stripped;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And nothing but ruin was there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Oh! how the rude autumn has spoiled the green hills!”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exclaimed little Charles, “and has choked the bright rills<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With leaves that are faded and dead!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The few on the trees are fast losing their hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leaving the branches so naked and cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That the beautiful birds have all fled.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I know,” replied Edward, “the country has lost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A great many charms by the touch of the frost,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which used to appear to the eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But then, it has opened the chestnut-burr too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The walnut released from the case where it grew;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And now is our <em>Thanksgiving</em> nigh!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Oh! what do you think we shall do on that day?”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“I guess,” answered Charles, “we shall all go away<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +<span class="i2">To Grandpa’s; and there find enough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of turkeys, plum-puddings, and pies by the dozens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Grandpa’ and Grandma’, aunts, uncles and cousins;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And at night we ’ll all play blind-man’s-buff.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Perhaps we ’ll get Grandpa’ to tell us some stories<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the old times, with their <em>Wigs</em> and their <em>Tories</em>;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And what sort of men they could be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When some spread their tables without any cloth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With basins and spoons, and the fuming bean-broth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which they took for their coffee and tea.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“They ’d queer kind of sights, I have heard Grandma’ say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About in their streets; for, if not every day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At least it was nothing uncommon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see them pile on the poor back of one horse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A saddle and <em>pillion</em>; and what was still worse,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Up mounted a man and a woman!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The lady held on by the driver; and so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away about town at full trot would they go;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or perhaps to a great country marriage—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Thanksgiving-supper—to husking, or ball;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or quilting; for thus did they take nearly all<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their rides, on an animal carriage.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I know not what <em>huskings</em> and <em>quiltings</em> may be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Grandma’ will tell; and perhaps let us see<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Some things, she has, long laid away:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That stiff damask gown, with its sharp-pointed waist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hoop, the craped-cushion, and buckles of paste,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which they wore in her grandparents’ day.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“She says they had buttons as large as our dollars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wear on their coats with their square, standing collars:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And then, there ’s a droll sort, of hat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which Mary once fixed me one like, out of paper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And said she believed ’t was called, <em>three-cornered scraper</em>;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Perhaps, too, she ’ll let us see that.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Oh! a glorious time we shall have! If they knew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the South, what it is, I guess they ’d have one too;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But I have heard somebody say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, there, they call all the New England folks <em>Bumpkins</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because we eat puddings, and pies made of pumpkins<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And have our good Thanksgiving-day.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I think, brother Charles,” returned Edward, “at least,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they might go to church, if they do n’t like the feast;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +<span class="i2">For to me it is much the best part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear the sweet anthems of praise, that we give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Him, on whose bounty we constantly live:—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It is feasting the ear and the heart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“From Him, who has brought us another year round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gives every blessing, wherewith we are crowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their gratitude who can withhold?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now how I wish I could know all the poor<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their Thanksgiving-stores had already secure,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their fuel, and clothes for the cold!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I ’m glad,” said their father, “to hear such a wish;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But wishes alone, can fill nobody’s dish,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or clothe them, or build them a fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now I will give you the money, my sons.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which I promised, you know, for your drum and your guns,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To spend in the way you desire.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The brothers went home, thinking o’er by the way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For how many comforts this money might pay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In something for clothing or food:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At length they resolved, if their mother would spend it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what she thought best, they would get her to send it<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where she thought it would do the most good.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="MUSIC_OF_THE_CRICKETS" id="MUSIC_OF_THE_CRICKETS">MUSIC OF THE CRICKETS.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I cannot</span> to the city go,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where all in sound and sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Declares that nature does not know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or do a thing aright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To granite wall, and tower, and dome<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My heart could never cling;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its simple strings are tied to home—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To where the crickets sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I ’m certain I was never made<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To run a city race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along a human palisade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That ’s ever shifting place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bustle, fashion, art and show<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were each a weary thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid them, I should sigh to go<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hear the crickets sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If there, I might no longer be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Myself, as now I seem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lose my own identity,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And walk, as in a dream;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or else, with din and crowd oppressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I ’d wish for sparrow’s wing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fly away, and be at rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where free the crickets sing.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fire-fly, rising from the grass<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A winged and living light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would not give for all the gas,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That spoils their city sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all the pomp and etiquette<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of citizen or king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall make my rustic heart forget<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The song, the crickets sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I find in hall and gallery,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their figures tame and faint,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To my wild bird, and brook, and tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Without a touch of paint.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the sweetest instrument<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of pipe, or key, or string,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ’d turn away, and feel content<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To hear the crickets sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! who could paint the placid moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That ’s beaming through the bough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of yon high elm, or play the tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That sounds beneath it now?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all the silver of the mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor human power could bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Another moon like her to shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or make a cricket sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know that, when the crickets trill<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their plaintive strains by night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They tell us that, from vale and hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The summer takes her flight.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And were there no renewing Power,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’T would be a mournful thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To think of fading leaf and flower;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hear the crickets sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, why should change with sadness dim<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our eye, when thought can range<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through time and space, and fly to him,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who is without a change?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he, who meted out the year,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will give another spring:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He rolls at once the shining sphere,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And makes the cricket sing.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when another autumn strips<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The summer leaves away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If cold and silent be the lips<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That breathed and moved to-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The time I ’ve passed with nature’s God<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will cause no spirit sting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though I ’ve adored him from the sod<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whereon the crickets sing.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="CHILDHOODS_DREAM" id="CHILDHOODS_DREAM">CHILDHOOD’S DREAM.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Give</span> me back, give me back but my one infant dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As it passed on the turf by my dear native stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where I slept from my play, while the wind tossed my hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till its ringlets, unbound, clasped the violets there.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O return, fleeting time, the soft moments that flew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the calm sinking sun, and the fall of the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, refreshing as light, and as dew to the flower<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er my young spirit came the blest dream of that hour!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I remember the song of the bird, and the breeze<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the perfumes it swept from the bloom of the trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As my eyes gently closed; but the visions that stole<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through my fancy’s green bowers, come no more to my soul!<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They were sweet but to pass, as the odors that fled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the young flowers I crushed, while they pillowed my head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like them, when they flew on the wings of the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are gone, and have left not a trace to tell where!<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They were clear as the sun in his mild, setting rays;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They were pure as the stars, soon to kindle and blaze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they ’re gone! I have lost the dear dream of that sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a bright planet drowned in the vast ether deep.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet the face of my mother, through tears as she smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she found, gently raised, and led home her lost child—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall see that loved face by time’s stream evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till I follow her home, where life’s dreamings are o’er.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_FRUIT-TREE_BLOSSOM" id="THE_FRUIT-TREE_BLOSSOM">THE FRUIT-TREE BLOSSOM.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">My</span> flower, thou art as sweet to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy form as full and fair—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As rich a fruit shall follow thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if thou hadst denied the bee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pure and precious gift, that he<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wafts joyous through the air.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The spices from thy bosom flow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As freely round thee now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if withheld an hour ago.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bestowing, thou canst still bestow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though, whence thy gifts thou may’st not know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or giving, tell me how.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And future good, we yet shall find,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was hidden in thy heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its witness shall be left behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou like all thy tender kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy minutes summed, shalt be resigned<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Forever to depart.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy ruin I would not forestall;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet soon, I know, to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must come, what happens once to all:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy life will fail, and thou must fall—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must fade and perish, past recall,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To vanish from the tree.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, on the bough where thou wast sent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To pass thy fleeting days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At work for which thine hours were lent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In silent, balmy, mild content,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A rich and shining monument<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To thee will nature raise.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, not in pride—in purpose high,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Awhile in beauty shine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And speak, through man’s admiring eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forbidding every passer by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wish to live, or dare to die<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With object less than thine.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_PLYMOUTH_APPLE_DECLINED" id="THE_PLYMOUTH_APPLE_DECLINED">THE PLYMOUTH APPLE DECLINED.</a></h3> + +<p class="small">Visiting at the house of a friend in Boston, I was shown an apple +which he told me had been sent to him from Plymouth, and was the +fruit of a tree that was planted by Peregrine White, the first child +born of Pilgrim parents in New England. I praised the apple for +its beauty, and the venerable associations connected with it. He +wished me to keep it; but, as he had no other of the tree, I declined +the gift.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">I wanted</span> the apple, when offered to me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By its generous owner, but thought it not right<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take it, because it had grown on a tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That sprang from a seed sown by <span class="smcap">Peregrine White</span>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, who thus proffered it, had none beside it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While diffidence checked the words,—“Let us divide it.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Peregrine White was the first <em>white</em>, you know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who drew his first breath in New England—the child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose parents were making to bud and to blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With its earliest blossoms, America’s wild:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he with the fruit never questioned me, whether<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We might partake of the apple together.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though a fabled divinity once had let fall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An apple of gold, where his favorites thronged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inscribed, “Of the fair, to the fairest of all!”<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It was not to me this whole apple belonged:<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +<span class="i0">My friend was no god—and then I, but a woman;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I thought that to halve it were just about human.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The whole I declined; still I did not deny<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A wish that, unuttered, was strong in my heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from it <em>entire</em>, while averting my eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I own I was secretly coveting <em>part</em>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And had he divided the offering presented,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Preserving one half, I had come off contented.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Had Solomon been there to put in a word,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His wisdom had brought the debate to an end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deciding at once, by the edge of his sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This contest of kindness between friend and friend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet he with the apple was quite too short-sighted<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see how I might in a half have delighted.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I hope that next autumn he ’ll go where it grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, if not forbidden the fruit, that he ’ll reach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pluck a fair apple, then cut it in two,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And tell me at once that <em>a half is for each</em>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of friendship’s best gift how the worth may be lightened<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By having it whole, when, if shared, how ’t were heightened!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_HALF_APPLE" id="THE_HALF_APPLE">THE HALF APPLE.</a></h3> + +<p class="small">A year after the foregoing poem was written, a nice little casket +was sent me, at the distance of thirty-five miles, which, on opening, +I found to contain the half of an apple like the one I had seen the +previous autumn.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The</span> half of an apple, well-flavored and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which shows by division such soundness of heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I gratefully hold; and acknowledge the care<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And kindness of him, who retains t ’other part.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fruit, that would perish, I taste with delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The seed taking out to lay cautiously by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because it encloses, concealed from my sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An emblem of that, which in us cannot die.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Its elements, when ’t is laid low in the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If good, will arise in fresh verdure and bloom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As man’s deathless soul seeks the world of its birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When what it once dwelt in lies dark in the tomb.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The little memento I ’ll hide in the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For Nature, its mother, to tenderly rear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bright be its blossoms—its fruit fair and sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When I and the giver no more shall be here!<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, when I depart, and some good, living deed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would fain leave behind, in remembrance of me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At least, be it said that I planted a seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That others might gather the fruit from the tree!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_HORTICULTURISTS_TABLE-HYMN" id="THE_HORTICULTURISTS_TABLE-HYMN">THE HORTICULTURIST’S TABLE-HYMN.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">From</span> him, who was lord of the fruits and the flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That in Paradise grew, ere he lost its possession—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who breathed in the balm, and reposed in the bowers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of our garden ancestral, we claim our profession.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And fruits rich and bright<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Bless our taste and our sight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As e’er gave our father in Eden delight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our fount clear as that, which he drank from, here flows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where green grows the myrtle, and blushing the rose.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While some sit in clouds but to murmur, or grieve<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That earth has her wormwood, her pitfalls, and brambles;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We smile, and go forth her rich gifts to receive,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the boughs drop their purple and gold on our rambles.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Untiring and free,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">As we work, like the bee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We bear off a sweet from each plant, shrub, and tree:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where some gather thorns but to torture the flesh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ripe clusters we pluck, and our spirits refresh.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, not to self only, we draw from the soil<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The treasures that Heaven in its vitals hath hidden;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thus to lock up the fair fruits of our toil<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were bliss half possessed, and a sin all forbidden.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Like morning’s first ray,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">When it spreads into day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our hearts must flow out, until self melts away!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our joys, in the bosoms around us when sown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spring up and bloom out, throwing sweets to our own.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And this makes the world all a garden to us,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where He, who has walled it, his glory is shedding:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His smile is its sun; and beholding it thus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We gratefully feast, while his bounty is spreading.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Our spirits grow bright<br /></span> +<span class="i10">As they bathe in his light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That beams on the board where in joy we unite:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sparks, which we take to enkindle our mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are blessings from heaven showering down on the earth.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now that we meet, and the chain is of <em>flowers</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which binds us together, may sadness ne’er blight them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till those, who <em>must</em> break from a compact like ours,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ascend where the ties of the blest reunite them!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +<span class="i10">May each, who is here,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">At the banquet appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where Life fills the wine-cup, and Love makes it clear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Gilead’s balm in its freshness shall flow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the wounds, which the <em>pruning-knife</em> gave us below!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_WHIP-POOR-WILL" id="THE_WHIP-POOR-WILL">THE WHIP-POOR-WILL.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Thou</span> mournful bird, when shadows fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At yester-eve on hill and dell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I heard thee of thy sorrows tell;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, as the dews distil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again, amid this twilight gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hear thee pour thy solemn lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With only one sad thing to say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Still crying, “Whip-poor-will.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O who has grieved thee, gentle bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That now thy vesper note is heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with thy melting, triple word<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thus dropping from thy bill?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How could they rudely whip at thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To scare thee from thy native tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And send thee moaning back to me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Repeating, “Whip-poor-will?”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And wherefore did they whip thee so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give thy voice this sound of wo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which comes so plaintively to show<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That they have used thee ill?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Didst thou go through the woods alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where brambly snares had thickly grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou wast taught thy piteous tone<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And story, “Whip-poor-will?”<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There have they made thee all the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In silence hide thyself away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lose the light, the flash, the play<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of sun, and fount, and rill?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And didst thou now steal out, afraid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of midnight in the coppice shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That here thy tender plaint is made<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Again, sad Whip-poor-will?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The trembling stars and lunar gleam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fitful in the thicket beam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perhaps would make poor Willie dream<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His foes were round him still.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the copse-wood, dark and deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A waving flower, or leaflet’s sweep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might startle thee, in troubled sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To murmur, “Whip-poor-will!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My bird, there ’s mystery in thy strain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A power I might resist in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mournful joy—with pleasing pain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My inmost soul to thrill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is memory stirs to wet my eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By waking shades of days gone by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When first, a child, I heard the cry<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So solemn, “Whip-poor-will.”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I call thee bird, yet thou may’st be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A spirit! for I cannot see—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ne’er could catch a glimpse of thee;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +<span class="i2">And undiscovered still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The vision form, that might appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wert thou to sight revealed as clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As is thy presence to mine ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mysterious Whip-poor-will.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="THE_AUTUMN_ROSE-BUD" id="THE_AUTUMN_ROSE-BUD">THE AUTUMN ROSE-BUD.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Come</span> out, pretty Rose-Bud, my lone, timid one!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come forth from thy green leaves, and peep at the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For little he does, in these dull autumn hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At height’ning of beauty, or laughing with flowers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His beams, on thy tender young cheek as he plays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will give it a blush that no other can raise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy fine silken petals they ’ll softly unfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fill their pure centre with spices and gold.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I would not instruct thee in coveting wealth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But beauty, we know, is the offspring of health;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And health, the fair daughter of freedom, is bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With feasting on breezes, and drinking the light.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then come, pretty bud; from thy covert look out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And see what the glad, golden sun is about:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His shafts, should they strike thee, will only impart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A grace to thy form, and a sweet to thy heart.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="TO_L_A_E_ON_HER_WEDDING-DAY" id="TO_L_A_E_ON_HER_WEDDING-DAY">TO L. A. E. ON HER WEDDING-DAY.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">That</span> I <em>will</em> “be near” on thy “bridal day”—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be with thee before we are ten hours older,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This hasty messenger comes to say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bringing its witness,—a pearly <em>folder</em>.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And this, perhaps, as a pointed sign,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the light upon Hymen’s altar burning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May signify, to a heart like thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">“What a leaf to-day in thy life is turning!”<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">May the lines for thy future reading there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With no sad characters dark or frowning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every letter be bright and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To thee and to him thou to-day art crowning.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Accept the token, and let it prove,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As long as thou hence shalt remain its owner,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou must be at a far remove<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From her, memorial of the donor.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou ’lt see engraved on its handle-part,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The form of a pen, with its top of feather—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A type of the wings that heart and heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May find, when absent, to fly together.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I send thee an opening, thornless rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Harmless and soft as the peaceful turtle;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With an emerald sprig from a branch that grows<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the single stalk of my true green myrtle.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I bound them about with a silver thread;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But, ere thy hand is the cord untwining,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rose will have drooped, or its leaves be shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While the myrtle still is freshly shining.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But I <em>will</em> “be near” in thy bridal hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This, “Wednesday, evening, at half past seven,”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give at the nuptials my holier dower,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A prayer for a smile on them from Heaven.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="TO_MRS_H_F_L" id="TO_MRS_H_F_L">TO MRS. H. F. L.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To think of thee, my Hannah—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To sit and think of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is to my heart like manna,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or balsam from the tree.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, first, its tendrils feeding,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It gives them strength to cling;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, if pained or bleeding,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It soothes the wound or sting.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To thine, a fount of feeling<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The warmest and the best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’T is sweet to seem revealing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The secrets of my breast.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of half its care and trouble,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My bosom, thus beguiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feels every joy is double,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When on it thou hast smiled.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’T is dark and stormy weather—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our first October day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we are here together,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though thou art far away.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For still I feel thee near me—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I see thy soft black eye—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fancy thou canst hear me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And I thy sweet reply.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And yet, my friend, my dearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This moment, where art thou?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What envied eye is nearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To look upon thee now?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is thine own Hannah present,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In spirit, still with thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dost thou find it pleasant<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To feel alone with me?<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then we are never parted!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor distance, place, nor scene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole and faithful-hearted<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall ever come between.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when earth’s changeful weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its joys and sorrows cease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O may we dwell together<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In deathless love and peace!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p> + +<div> +<h3><a name="MUSIC" id="MUSIC">MUSIC.</a></h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Music</span>? A blessed angel! She was born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within the palace of the King of kings—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A favorite near his throne. In that glad child<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Love and Joy, he made their spirits one;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her, the heir to everlasting life!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When his bright hosts would give him highest praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They send her forward with her dulcet voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pour their holy rapture in his ear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the young earth to being started forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Music lay sleeping in a bower of heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A crystal fountain, close beside her, gushed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With living waters; and the sparkling cup<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For her pure draught, stood on its emerald brink.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While o’er her brow a tender halo shone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kissed by the nodding buds, her head reclined<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon a flowery pillow. At her ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soft leaves whispered. On her half-closed lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gentle air strewed spices, wooing them.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropped o’er its radiant orb, the long-fringed lid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Veiled the deep inspiration of her eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on her cheek the rose-tint came and went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the quick pulse that fluttered in her breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spoke a wakeful spirit. In her sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one fair hand thrown o’er its silent strings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close to her heart she clasped her golden lyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To slumber with her, while she fondly dreamed<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Of the sweet uses she might make of it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To numbers yet untried.<br /></span> +<span class="i28">When, suddenly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shout of joy from all the sons of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rang through his courts: and then the thrilling call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Wake! sister Music, wake, and hail with us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A new-created sphere!”<br /></span> +<span class="i16">She woke! She rose—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She moved among the morning stars, and gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The birth-song of a world.<br /></span> +<span class="i28">Our infant globe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With life’s first pulse, rolled in its ether bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Robed with the sunlight, mantled by the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or tenderly embraced by stellar rays:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death, with his pale, cold finger, had not touched<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its beauty then. No stain of guilt was here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so, no cloud of sorrow cast a shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or rained its bitter drops on fruit or flower.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As earth, on every side, shone fair to heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not knowing yet whereto she was ordained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Music, from her celestial walks looked down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thought, how sweetly she could wake the hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sing through the silent forests—in the vales—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beside the silver waters pour her sounds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And multiply her numbers by the rocks!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She longed to give it voice to speak to God;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, being told of her blest ministry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bathed in a flood of glory, till her wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dripped with effulgence, as they spread, and poised,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And passed the pearly gates in earthward flight.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Made viewless by the circumambient air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scattering voices to its feathered tribes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As down she hastened to the shining sphere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The happy angel reached the beauteous earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At her electric touch, young nature smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kindled into rapture; then broke forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thousand, thousand songs.<br /></span> +<span class="i18">The green turf woke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea-shells hummed along the vocal shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The busy bee, upon his honeyed flower.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Osier and reed became Eolian lyres.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trees bore sweet minstrels; while rock, hill, and dell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sang to each other in a joyous round.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Man</span>, that mysterious instrument of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the warm soul of new-descended power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breathed on his heart-strings, lifted up his voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chanting, “<span class="smcap">Jehovah!</span>”<br /></span> +<span class="i22">Since that blessed hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While still her home is heaven, Music has ne’er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This darkened world forsaken. She delights,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though man may lose, or keep the paths of peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To soothe, to cheer, to light and warm his heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lends her wings to waft it to the skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She throws a lustre o’er Devotion’s face—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drinks off the tear from Sorrow’s languid eye—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tames wild Despair—brings Hope a brighter bloom—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lulls Hate to rest—Love’s ruffled bosom smooths;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pours honey into many a bitter cup;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And often gives the black and heavy hour<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +<span class="i0">A downy breast and pinions tipped with light.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She steals all balmy through the prisoner’s grates,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making that sad one half forget their use.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With holy spell she binds the exile’s heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pours her oil upon its hidden wounds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kings are her lovers—cottagers her loves:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hero and the pilgrim walk with her.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her voice is sweet by cradled infancy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the pillow of the dying saint,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When a glad spirit borrows her light wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To practise for the skies, ere it unfolds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its own, and breaks its tenure to the clay.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">True, by man’s wanderings for his tempter’s lure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Music is often drawn to scenes unmeet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For purity like hers; and made to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhallowed burdens; or, to join in rites<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To turpitude in fellest places held.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, like the sun, whose beaming vesture, trailed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er all things staining, still defies a stain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And is at night withdrawn, and girded up,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Warm and untarnished for the morning skies—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She comes unsullied from her baser walks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sighs at the darkness, guilt and wo of earth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breathes Zion’s air, and, warmed with heavenly fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mounts to her glorious home!<br /></span> +<span class="i22">’T was she, who bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first grand offering of the free, on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When to the shore, through Egypt’s solemn sea,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The franchised Hebrews passed with feet dry-shod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pæans gave to their Deliverer there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She cheered the wanderers on; and when they crossed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over old Jordan, to the strong-armed foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still she was with them; and her single breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid the proud Painim’s city-walls in dust!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In native light, she walked Judea’s hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sipped the dew of Hermon from its flower<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the Sun of righteousness arose.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Prophet chose her to unseal his lips,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere God spake through them; and the Prophetess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lift the heart’s pure gift from her’s to Heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When Israel’s king was troubled, her soft hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Put close, but gently, to his gloomy breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reached the dark spirit there, and laid it still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound by the chords a shepherd minstrel swept.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And since, her countless thousands she has brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To heaven’s mild kingdom, happy captives led,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By those sweet glowing strings of David’s lyre.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But oh! her richest, dearest notes to man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In strains aerial over Bethlehem poured,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When <span class="smcap">He</span>, whose brightness is the light of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To earth descending for a mortal’s form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid by his glory, save one radiant mark,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That moved through space, and o’er the infant hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He summoned Music to attend him here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Announcing peace below!<br /></span> +<span class="i22">He called her, too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sweeten that sad supper, and to twine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her mantle round him, and his few, grieved friends<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To join their mournful spirits with the hymn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere to the Mount of Olives he went out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So sorrowful.<br /></span> +<span class="i12">And now, his blessed word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sacred pledge, is left to dying man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then at his second coming in his power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Music shall still be with him; and her voice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sound through the tombs and wake the dead to life!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p class="trans-heading"> +Transcriber's Notes +</p> +<p class="covernote">The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> +<p> + Original spelling has been retained except in the following case: +</p> +<p> + In the poem "The Pilgrim's Way Song" on <a href="#Page_29">page 29</a> "thrist" has been + corrected to "thirst" (To drink, and to thirst never more.) +</p> +<p> + The deviation between some items in the table of contents and the + actual headings have also been retained. +</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44444 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |