O YE KEEN BREEZES.

O YE keen breezes from the salt Atlantic,

Which to the beach where memory loves to wander,
On your strong pinions waft reviving coolness,
Bend your course hither!

For, in the surf ye scatter'd to the sunshine,
Did we not sport together in my boyhood,
Screaming for joy amid the flashing breakers,
O rude companions?

Then to the meadows beautiful and fragrant,
Where the coy Spring beholds her earliest verdure
Brighten with smiles that rugged sea-side hamlet,
How would we hasten!

There under elm-trees affluent in foliage,
High o'er whose summit hover'd the sea-eagle,
Through the hot, glaring noontide have we rested
After our gambols.

Vainly the sailor call'd you from your slumber :
Like a glazed pavement shone the level ocean;
While, with the snow-white canvas idly drooping,
Stood the tall vessels.

And when, at length, exulting ye awaken'd,
Rush'd to the beach, and plough'd the liquid acres,
How have I chased you through the shiver'd billows,
In my frail shallop!

Playmates, old playmates, hear my invocation!
In the close town I waste this golden summer,
Where piercing cries and sounds of wheels in motion
Ceaselessly mingle.

When shall I feel

your breath upon my forehead? When shall I hear you in the elm-trees' branches? When shall we wrestle in the briny surges,

Friends of my boyhood?

CHARLES GAMAGE EASTMAN. ·
Born at Fryeburg, Maine, 1816-

A SNOW-STORM IN VERMONT.

I.

"TIs a fearful night in the winter time,
As cold as it ever can be;

The roar of the blast is heard, like the chime
Of the waves on an angry sea;

The moon is full, but her silver light

The storm dashes out with its wings to-night;
And over the sky from south to north
Not a star is seen, as the wind comes forth
In the strength of a mighty glee.

II.

All day had the snow come down,—all day,
As it never came down before;

And over the hills at sunset lay

Some two or three feet, or more;

The fence was lost, and the wall of stone;
The windows block'd, and the well-curbs gone;
The haystack had grown to a mountain lift;
And the woodpile look'd like a monster drift,
As it lay by the farmer's door.

The night sets in on a world of snow,
While the air grows sharp and chill,
And the warning roar of a fearful blow
Is heard on the distant hill;

And the Norther!-See! on the mountain peak,
In his breath how the old trees writhe and shriek!
He shouts on the plain-Ho-ho! ho-ho!
He drives from his nostrils the blinding snow,
And growls with a savage will.

III.

Such a night as this to be found abroad,
In the drifts and the freezing air,-
Sits a shivering dog in the field by the road,
With the snow in his shaggy hair!

He shuts his eyes to the wind, and growls;
He lifts his head, and moans and howls;
Then crouching low from the cutting sleet,
His nose is press'd on his quivering feet :-
Pray, what does the dog do there?

A farmer came from the village plain,
But he lost the travell'd way;

:

And for hours he trod, with might and main,
A path for his horse and sleigh;
But colder still the cold wind blew,
And deeper still the deep drifts grew,
And his mare, a beautiful Morgan brown,
At last in her struggles flounder'd down,
Where a log in a hollow lay.

In vain, with a neigh and a frenzied snort,
She plunged in the drifting snow,

While her master urged, till his breath grew short,
With a word and a gentle blow;

But the snow was deep, and the tugs were tight;
His hands were numb, and had lost their might;
So he wallow'd back to his half-filled sleigh,
And strove to shelter himself till day,

With his coat and the buffalo.

IV.

He has given the last faint jerk of the rein
To rouse up his dying steed,

And the poor dog howls to the blast in vain,
For help in his master's need;

For a while he strives, with a wistful cry,
To catch a glance from his drowsy eye,
And wags his tail if the rude winds flap
The skirt of the buffalo over his lap,

And whines when he takes no heed.

V.

The wind goes down, and the storm is o'er:
"Tis the hour of midnight,-past;

The old trees writhe and bend no more
In the whirl of the rushing blast;

The silent moon, with her peaceful light,
Looks down on the hills with snow all white;
And the giant shadow of Camel's Hump,
The blasted pine and the ghostly stump,
Afar on the plain are cast.

But cold and dead, by the hidden log,

Are they who came from the town:
The man in his sleigh, and his faithful dog,
And his beautiful Morgan brown :-

In the wide snow-desert, far and grand,

With his cap on his head, and the reins in his hand,—
The dog with his nose on his master's feet,-

And the mare half seen through the crusted sleet,
Where she lay when she flounder'd down.

THE FARMER.

THE farmer sat in his easy chair,

Smoking his pipe of clay,

While his hale old wife with busy care
Was clearing the dinner away;

A sweet little girl with fine blue eyes
On her grandfather's knee was catching flies.

The old man laid his hand on her head,
With a tear on his wrinkled face;
He thought how often her mother, dead,
Had sat in the self-same place:

As the tear stole down from his half-shut eye

"Don't smoke"- said the child; "how it makes you cry!"

The house-dog lay stretch'd out on the floor

Where the shade after noon used to steal;

The busy old wife by the open door

Was turning the spinning-wheel; And the old brass clock on the manteltree Had plodded along to almost three :

Still the farmer sat in his easy chair, While close to his heaving breast The moisten'd brow and the cheek so fair Of his sweet grandchild were press'd; His head, bent down, on her soft hair layFast asleep were they both, that summer day.

DIRGE.

SOFTLY!
She is lying

With her lips apart.
Softly!

She is dying

Of a broken heart.

Whisper !
She is going

To her final rest.
Whisper !

Life is growing

Dim within her breast.

Gently!
She is sleeping;

She has breathed her last.

Gently!

While you are weeping,
She to Heaven has past.

JOHN GODFREY SAXE.

Born at Highgate, Vermont, 1816

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT.

Ir was six men of Indostan,

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.