120

125

130

135

140

We shall see, while above us

The waves roar and whirl,*
A ceiling of amber,
A pavement of pearl.
Singing,

"Here came a mortal,
But faithless was she.
And alone dwell for ever

The kings of the sea."

But, children, at midnight,
When soft the winds blow;
When clear falls the moonlight:
When spring-tides * are low :
When sweet airs come seaward
From heaths starred with broom ;*
And high rocks throw mildly
On the blanched * sands a gloom :
Up the still, glistening beaches,
Up the creeks we will hie;
Over banks of bright seaweed
The ebb-tide * leaves dry.

*

*

We will gaze, from the sand-hills,
At the white, sleeping town;
At the church on the hill-side-
And then come back down.

Singing, "There dwells a loved one,
But cruel is she.

She left lonely for ever

The kings of the sea."

Whirl, to go round and round, to toss about in a confused manner.

Faithless, false, not true to her promise.

Spring-tides, those which rise higher than ordinary tides, after new and full moon.

Broom, a wild evergreen shrub, with leafless pointed twigs. Blanched, made white or whitened. Creek, a small inlet of the sea.

Hie, to hasten.

Ebb-tide, the going back or retiring of the tide.

Sleeping town, the in. habitants had retired to rest.

THE SKY-LARK.-Hogg.

JAMES HOGG (1770-1835) was born in Ettrick Forest in Selkirkshire. He was a farmer and a shepherd, and hence called the "Ettrick Shepherd," but he was more successful as a poet. Chief work: The Queen's Wake, containing the beautiful fairy ballad Kilmeny: he also wrote songs and novels.

5

BIRD of the wilderness,
Blithesome* and cumberless,*

Blithesome, cheerful,

Sweet be thy matin* o'er moorland and lea!* gay.

Emblem* of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place

*

Oh to abide in the desert with thee!

Wild is thy lay* and loud,
Far in the downy cloud :

Cumberless, free from

care.

Matin,morning song. Lea, pasture land, a meadow.

Emblem, sign or figure, a token. Abide, to live.

Lay, & song.

Energy, power, strength.

Dewy wing, the lark builds its nest on the ground, and consequently when the dew falls at night it gets covered with it. Thy lay is in heaven, the lark soars high into the air, and there warbles forth its song. Fell, a rocky hill. Sheen, brightness, glitter.

Cloudlet, a little cloud.

Cherub, an angel.

Gloaming, twilight,

the evening.

Love gives its energy,* love gave it birth.
Where, on thy dewy wing,*
Where art thou journeying?

Thy lay is in heaven,* thy love is on earth.

O'er fell* and fountain sheen,'
O'er moor and mountain green,

O'er the red streamer that heralds the day;
Over the cloudlet * dim,

Over the rainbow's rim,

Musical cherub,* soar, singing, away!

Then, when the gloaming * comes,
Low in the heather blooms

Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be
Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place-
Oh to abide in the desert with thee!

VISION OF BELSHAZZAR.*-Byron

chief Satraps, the governors and nobles.

In Judah, &c., these vessels were set apart for the service of the Temple, and were, therefore, held most Jacred.

Bloodless, &c., he be

came pale with fear.

*

THE King was on his throne,
The Satraps thronged the hall;
A thousand bright lamps shone
O'er that high festival.
A thousand cups of gold,

In Judah* deemed divine-
Jehovah's vessels hold

The godless Heathen's wine.

In that same hour and hall,
The fingers of a hand
Came forth against the wall,
And wrote as if on sand:
The fingers of a man ;—
A solitary hand

Along the letters ran,

And traced them like a wand.

The monarch saw, and shook,
And bade no more rejoice;

All bloodless* waxed his look,
And tremulous his voice.

* Belshazzar was the last of the Babylonian kings. This poem is founded on the Account given of the overthrow of Babylon in the Book of Daniel.

85

30

35

40

45

5

age

*

Are wise and deep in lore
But now they were not sage,
They saw-but knew no more.

A captive* in the land,

A stranger and a youth,
He heard the King's command,
He saw that writing's truth.
The lamps around were bright
The prophecy* in view;
He read it on that night,-

The morrow proved it true.
"Belshazzar's grave is made,

His kingdom passed away,
He, in the balance weighed,
Is light and worthless clay.
The shroud his robe of state,
His
* the stone:
canopy
The Mede is at his gate!

*

*

*

The Persian on his throne !"

Men of lore, the
learned men of the
kingdom.

Expound, explain.
Mar, spoil.

Chaldea's seers, the
wise men of Babylon.
No skill, ao know-
ledge or power.

Lore, learning, know-
ledge.
Sage, wise.

A captive, the prophet Daniel, who had been carried captive into Babylon.

The prophecy, that
which foretold what
was about to happen,
Shroud, the dress with
which a dead body is
covered.

Canopy, the covering
above a throne.
The stone, here means
his tombstone.
The Medes were the
inhabitants of Media,
a district to the north
of Persia.

The Persian, Cyrus,
king of the Medes and
Persians.

THE BATTLE OF HOHENLINDEN.*-Campbell.

ON Linden, when the sun * was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow;
And dark as winter was the flow

Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

But Linden showed another sight,
When the drum beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death* to light
The darkness of her scenery.*

Sun, &c., at sunset.

Fires of death, the discharge of the artillery which carried death and destruction among the troops. Scenery, the appearance of the country.

* Hohenlinden, or Linden Heights, is a small village in Bavaria. about six leagues from Munich. It is situated between the Iser and the Inn, tributaries of the Danube. The Austrians and Bavarians were defeated here by the French on the 3d December 1800.

to

Revelry, the bustle and din of battle. Then shook the hills, the surrounding country seemed shake again with the dreadful noise made by the firing of the artillery.

Riven, torn asunder; here it refers to the ground being torn up with the cannonballs.

Frank, the ancient
name for the French,
who in the 3d cen-
tury overthrew the
Roman dominion in
Gaul, and settled
there.

Huns, or, as they are
now called, Magyars,
are the inhabitants
of Hungary, and be-
long to the Mongol
race. They form the
chief portion of the
Austrian empire.
Munich, the capital
of Bavaria, on the
river Iser. It is a
very fine city, and in
its palace there is
one of the finest col-
lections of paintings
in Europe.
Sepulchre, a place of
burial, a tomb.

By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
Each horseman drew his battle-blade;
And furious every charger neighed,

To join the dreadful revelry.*

Then shook the hills* with thunder riven ;*
Then rushed the steed to battle driven;
And, louder than the bolts of heaven,

Far flashed the red artillery.

But redder yet those fires shall glow
On Linden's hills of stainèd snow;
And bloodier yet shall be the flow

Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

'Tis morn-but scarce yon level sun
Can pierce the war-cloud rolling dun,
Where furious Frank* and fiery Hun*
Shout 'mid their sulphurous canopy.

The combat deepens: On, ye brave!
Who rush to glory or the grave!
Wave, Munich,* all thy banners wave,
And charge with all thy chivalry!

Few, few shall part where many meet!
The snow shall be their winding-sheet;
And every turf beneath their feet

Shall be a soldier's sepulchre !

*

ΤΟ

15

20

25

330

10

15 You can hear him wield * his heavy sledge,*
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton * ringing the village bell
When the evening sun is low.

20

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,*

And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff* from a threshing-floor.*
25 He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;

30

He hears the parson pray and preach;
He hears his daughter's voice
Singing in the village choir,*

And it makes his heart rejoice:

It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!

He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;

35 And with his hard, rough hand, he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.

BARBARA FRITCHIE.-J. G. Whittier.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1808- ) was born at Havershill, Massachusetts, where his ancestors had long been settled. Many of his poems were devoted to the cause of Abolition. He contributes to all the leading American Magazines of the present day.

UP from the meadows, rich with corn,
Clear from the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick * stand,
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

*

*

Clustered, crowded together. Frederick, or Fredericksburg, in Virginia, U.S.

Green-walled, &c., surrounded, as by a natural wall, by the hills of the Blue Ridge, a branch of the Alleghany Mountains.