To which life nothing darker or brighter can bring, For which Joy has no balm, and Affliction no sting:

Oh! this thought in the midst of enjoyment will

stay,

Like a dead leafless branch in the summer's bright

ray;

The beams of the warm sun play round it in vainIt may smile in its light, but it blooms not again¦

THE MEETING OF WATERS. I

AIR-The Old Head of Dennis.

THERE is not in this wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;2

« The Meeting of the Waters » forms a part of that beautiful scenery which lies between Rathdrum and Arklow in the county of Wicklow; and these lines were suggested by a visit to this romantic spot, in the summer of the year 1807,

2 The rivers Avon and Ovoca.

Oh the last rays of feeling and life must depart Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart!

Yet it was not that nature had shed o'er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
'Twas not the soft magic of streamlet or hill!
Oh! no-it was something more exquisite still:-

"Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom were

near,

Who made ev'ry dear scene of enchantment more

dear;

And who felt how the best charms of nature im

prove

When we see them reflected from looks that we

love.

Sweet vale of Ovoca! how calm could I rest

In thy bosom of shade,with the friends I love best, Where the storms which we feel in this cold world should cease,

And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace!

ST. SENANUS AND THE LADY

AIR-The Brown Thorn.

ST. SENANUS."

« OH! haste and leave this sacred isle,
Unholy bark, ere morning smile;
For on thy deck, though dark it be,
A female form I see;

And I have sworn the sainted sod

Shall ne'erby woman's feet be trod.»

THE LADY.

«Oh! Father, send not hence my

bark

Through wintry winds and billows dark;
I come with humble heart to share

Thy morn and evening prayer;
Nor mine the feet, oh! holy saint,
The brightness of thy sod to taint. »>

In a metrical life of St. Senanus, which is taken from an old Kilkenny MS. and may be found among the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ, we are told of his flight to the island of Scattery, and his resolution not to admit any woman of the party; he refused to receive even a sister saint, St. Cannera, whom an angel had taken to the

The Lady's prayer Senanus spurn'd,
The winds blew fresh, the bark return'd,
But legends hint that had the maid
Till morning's light delay'd,
And given the saint one rosy smile,
She ne'er had left his lonely isle.

HOW DEAR TO ME THE HOUR WHEN DAYLIGHT DIES

AIR-The twisting of the Rope.

How dear to me the hour when daylight dies,
And sunbeams dance along the silent sea;
For then sweet dreams of other days arise.
And memory breathes her vesper sigh to thee.

island for the express purpose of introducing her to him. The following was the ungracious answer Senanus, according to his poetical biographer :

-

Cui præsul, quid fœminis

Commune est cum monachis,

Nec te nec ullam aliam

Admittemus in insulam.

See the Acta Sanct. Hib., page 610.

According to Dr. Leawich, St. Senanus was no less a personage than the river Shannon; but O'Connor, and other antiquarians deny this metamorphosis indignantly.

And as I watch the line of light that plays

Along the smooth wave tow'rds the burning west, I long to tread that golden path of rays,

And think 'twould lead to some bright isle of rest?

TAKE BACK THE VIRGIN PAGE.

(WRITTEN ON RETURNING A BLANK BOOK. }

AIR-Dermot.

TAKE back the virgin page

White and unwritten still:
Somehand more calm and sage
The leaf must fill.

Thoughts come as pure as light,
Pure as even you require ;
But, oh each word I write

Love turn to fire.