"T was Nea! slumb'ring calm and mild,
And bloomy as the dimpled child,
Whose spirit in Elysium keeps
Its playful sabbath, while he sleeps.

The broad banana's green embrace Hung shadowy round each tranquil grace; One little beam alone could win

The leaves to let it wander in,

And, stealing over all her charms,

From lip to cheek, from neck to arms,
New lustre to each beauty lent,-
Itself all trembling as it went!

Dark lay her eyelid's jetty fringe
Upon that cheek whose roseate tinge
Mix'd with its shade, like evening's light
Just touching on the verge of night.
Her eyes, though thus in slumber hid,
Seem'd glowing through the ivory lid,
And, as I thought, a lustre threw
Upon her lip's reflecting dew,-
Such as a night-lamp, left to shine
Alone on some secluded shrine,

May shed upon the votive wreath,
Which pious hands have hung beneath.

Was ever vision half so sweet?

Think, think how quick my heart-pulse beat,
As o'er the rustling bank I stole ;-
Oh! ye, that know the lover's soul,
It is for you alone to guess,

That moment's trembling happiness.

LET ERIN REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD.

ET Erin remember the days of old,

Ere her faithless sons betray'd her; When Malachi wore the collar of gold, Which he won from her proud invader, When her kings, with standard of green unfurl'd, Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger;Ere the emerald gem of the western world Was set in the crown of a stranger.

On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays,
When the clear cold eve's declining,

He sees the round towers of other days
In the wave beneath him shining;
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,

Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;
Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time
For the long-faded glories they cover.

THE MINSTREL BOY.

HE Minstrel Boy to the war is

gone,

In the ranks of death you'll find him; His father's sword he has girded on,

And his wild harp slung behind him.--"Land of song!" said the warrior-bard,

Though all the world betrays thee, One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, One faithful harp shall praise thee!"

The Minstrel fell!-but the foeman's chain
Could not bring his proud soul under;
The harp he loved ne'er spoke again,
For he tore its chords asunder;
And said, "No chains shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery!

Thy songs were made for the pure and free,
They shall never sound in slavery."

WHEN COLD IN THE EARTH.

HEN cold in the earth lies the friend thou

hast loved,

Be his faults and his follies forgot by thee

then ;

Or, if from their slumber the veil be removed, Weep o'er them in silence, and close it again. And oh! if 'tis pain to remember how far

From the pathways of light he was tempted to roam, Be it bliss to remember that thou wert the star

That arose on his darkness, and guided him home.

From thee and thy innocent beauty first came

The revealings, that taught hìm true love to adore,
To feel the bright presence, and turn him with shame
From the idols he blindly had knelt to before.
O'er the waves of a life, long benighted and wild,
Thou camest, like a soft golden calm o'er the sea;
And if happiness purely and glowingly smiled

On his evening horizon, the light was from thee.

And though, sometimes, the shades of past folly might rise, And though falsehood again would allure him to stray, He but turn'd to the glory that dwelt in those eyes,

And the folly, the falsehood, soon vanish'd away. As the Priests of the Sun, when their altar grew dim,

At the day-beam alone could its lustre repair,

So if virtue a moment grew languid in him,

He but flew to that smile, and rekindled it there.

A

Against the wind was cleaving,

Her trembling pennant still look'd back
To that dear Isle 't was leaving.

So loth we part from all we love,

From all the links that bind us;