And hills all rich with blossom'd trees,
And fields which promise corn and wine,
And scatter'd cities crowning these,

Whose far white walls along them shine,
Have strew'd a scene, which I should see
With double joy wert thou with me.

And peasant girls, with deep blue eyes,
And hands which offer early flowers,
Walk smiling o'er this paradise ;

Above, the frequent feudal towers
Through green leaves lift their walls of gray,
And many a rock which steeply lowers,
And noble arch in proud decay,

Look o'er this vale of vintage-bowers. But one thing want these banks of Rhine,Thy gentle hand to clasp in mine!

I send the lilies given to me;

Though, long before thy hand they touch,
I know that they must wither'd be,
But yet reject them not as such;
For I have cherish'd them as dear,
Because they yet may meet thine eye,
And guide thy soul to mine even here,
When thou behold'st them drooping nigh,
And know'st them gather'd by the Rhine,
And offer'd from my heart to thine!

The river nobly foams and flows,

The charm of this enchanted ground,
And all its thousand turns disclose

Some fresher beauty varying round:
The haughtiest breast its wish might bound
Through life to dwell delightful here;
Nor could on earth a spot be found

To nature and to me so dear,

Could thy dear eyes in following mine
Still sweeten more these banks of Rhine.

BYRON

THE SABBATH.

WHAT spell has o'er the populous city past?
The wonted current of its life is stay'd;
Its sports, its gainful schemes are earthward cast,
As though their vileness were at once display'd;
The roar of trade has ceas'd, and on the air
Come holy songs, and solemn sounds of prayer.

Far spreads the charm: from every hamlet spire A note of rest, and heavenward thought is peal'd:

By his calm hearth reclines the peasant sire;

The toil-worn steed basks in the breezy field. Within, without, through farm and cottage blest, "Tis one bright day of gladness and of rest.

Down from the mountain dwellings, whilst the dew Shines on the heath-bells, and the fern is bending

In the fresh breeze, in festive garbs I view

Childhood, and age, and buoyant youth descending.

God!-who has pil'd thy wonders round their home,

"Tis in their love they to thy temple come.

A stately ship speeds o'er the mighty main-
Oh! many a league from our own happy land:
Yet from its heart ascends the choral strain;
For there its little isolated band,

Amid the ocean desert's awful roar

Praise Him whose love links shore to distant shore.

O'er palmy woods, where summer radiance falls,
In the glad islands of the Indian main,
What thronging crowds the missionary calls

To raise to heaven the Christian's glorious
strain!

Lo! where, engirt by children of the sun,
Stands the white man, and counts his victories

won.

In the fierce deserts of a distant zone,

Mid savage nations, terrible and stern, A lonely atom, sever'd from his own,

The traveller wends, death or renown to earn. Parch'd, fasting, wearied, verging to despair, He kneels, he prays-hope kindles in his prayer.

O'er the wide world, blest day, thine influence flies, Rest o'er the sufferer spreads her balmy wings; Love wakes, joy dawns, praise fills the listening skies;

The expanding heart from earth's enchantment springs:

Heaven, for one day, withdraws its ancient ban, Unbars its gates, and dwells once more with man.

W. HOWITT.

ON A STREAM OF WATER.

HERE we see

The water at its well-head; clear it is,

Not more transpicuous the invisible air;
Pure as an infant's thoughts; and here to life
And good directed all its uses serve.

The herb grows greener on its brink; sweet flowers

Bend o'er the stream that feeds their freshen'd

roots;

The redbreast loves it for his wintry haunts,
And, when the buds begin to open forth,

Builds near it, with his mate, their brooding nest;
The thirsty stag with widening nostrils there
Invigorated draws his copious draught;
And there amid its flags the wild-boar stands,
Nor suffering wrong nor meditating hurt.
Through woodlands wide and solitary fields
Unsullied thus it holds its bounteous course;
But when it reaches the resorts of men,
The service of the city there defiles

The tainted stream; corrupt and foul it flows
Through loathsome banks and o'er a bed impure,
Till in the sea, the appointed end to which
Through all its way it hastens, 'tis receiv'd,
And, losing all pollution, mingles there
In the wide world of waters. So is it
With the great stream of things, if all were seen;
Good the beginning, good the end shall be,
And transitory evil only make

The good end happier. Ages pass away,
Thrones fall, and nations disappear, and worlds
Grow old and go to wreck; the soul alone
Endures, and what she chooseth for herself,
The arbiter of her own destiny,
That only shall be permanent.

SOUTHEY.

LOSS OF TIME.

SOME care not how they trifle life away;

A hero wept if he but lost a day!

LEIGH.

ECHO AND SILENCE.

IN eddying course when leaves began to fly,
And Autumn in her lap the store to strew,
As mid wild scenes I chanc'd the muse to woo,
Through glens untrod, and woods that frown'd
on high,

Two sleeping nymphs with wonder mute I spy! And lo, she's gone! In robe of dark-green hue, 'Twas Echo from her sister Silence flew ;

For quick the hunter's horn resounded to the sky!

In shade affrighted Silence melts away;

Not so her sister:hark! for onward still With far-heard step she takes her listening way, Bounding from rock to rock, and hill to hill! Oh, mark the merry maid in mockful play With thousand mimic tones the laughing forest fill!

BRYDGES.

WASHINGTON.

GREAT Washington! in simple grandeur snines Thy glory, far above the vulgar glare

Is self-denying power, that virtue rare.
The guardian of his country's weal secures
A pure renown, if he avoid the snare
To which ambition oft the wise allures;

He who can brave the storm not alway sun endures.