UNSEEN SPIRITS. She kept with care her beauties rare For her heart was cold to all but gold, Now walking there was one more fair, A slight girl, lily-pale; And she had unseen company To make the spirit quail: 'Twixt Want and Scorn she walked forlorn, And nothing could avail. No mercy now can clear her brow For this world's peace to pray; For, as love's wild prayer dissolved in air, But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven By man is cursed alway! NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. MY LIFE IS LIKE THE SUMMER ROSE. My life is like the summer rose That opens to the morning sky, But, ere the shades of evening close, Is scattered on the ground Yet on the rose's humble bed to die; The sweetest dews of night are shed, My life is like the autumn leaf That trembles in the moon's pale ray; Restless and soon to pass away; My life is like the prints which feet All trace will vanish from the sand; All vestige of the human race, On that lone shore loud moans the sea. But none, alas! shall mourn for me! RICHARD HENRY WILDE. THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. It was the schooner Hesperus That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds The skipper he stood beside the helm: His pipe was in his mouth; And he watched how the veering flaw did blow The smoke now west, now south. Then up and spake an old sailor, Had sailed the Spanish main: "I pray thee, put into yonder port; For I fear a hurricane. "Last night the moon had a golden ring, The skipper he blew a whiff from his pipe, THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. Colder and louder blew the wind, Down came the storm, and smote amain She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed; "Come hither, come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale That ever wind did blow." He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat, He cut a rope from a broken spar, And bound her to the mast. "O father, I hear the church-bells ring! O say what may it be?" "'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" And he steered for the open sea. "O father, I hear the sound of ! guns O say what may it be?" "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!" THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. "O father, I see a gleaming light! Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed, That saved she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave On the Lake of Galilee. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, And ever, the fitful gusts between, It was the sound of the trampling surf The breakers were right beneath her bows: And a whooping billow swept the crew, |