The Present-Coromandel.

""Tis most true

That musing meditation most affects

The pensive secrecy of desert cell."-MILTON.

HERE on this isle, where none beside me dwells,
Let me, the while my lonely leisure flies,
Fathom all past and present histories;

Reading the World's tale from the sea-worn shells,
Time's medals, on whose face he marks and tells
Creation-dates through countless centuries:
And be it mine, with calm, clear, piercing eyes,
Here, where no bias turns, no passion swells,
Or head or heart, the present acts of Man
To view; as from some promontoried steep
The peerer through the glassy-surfac'd wave,
Which on a summer noon no breezes fan,
A thousand fathom downward in their grave,
Surveys the buried cities of the deep.

Coromandel - Quiet.

"Wisdom's self

Oft seeks for sweet retired solitude,

Where with her best nurse, Contemplation,

She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings."-MILTON.

"Reflected on the lake, I love

To see the stars of evening glow,

So tranquil in the heaven above,

So restless in the wave below."-HEBER.

HERE be it mine, when India's flame-breathed day
Hath parch'd the bones, and fever'd all the blood,
To push forth in my shallop on the flood,
Supine on deck, while the sea-breezes play
Cool on the brow, what time the Sun's last ray
Shoots up long lines of green and gold that stud
The western sky, all crimson else as blood.
Then, as the gorgeous vision fades away,
Mid the sole sounds, the paddle's tuneful plash,
And the far surf-roll of the waves that dash
Lazily on the Coromandel shore,

To watch the white Moon don her silver dress,
While, one by one, the shy stars evermore
Come sparkling forth, like fireflies numberless.

Bells.

"Bid the merry bells ring to thine ear."

Second Part of King Henry IV.

RING it out bravely, o'er the sacred pile,
Ye merry Merton bells! throughout the vale
With momentary changes tell the tale ;-

The Queen of all broad England's sea-girt isle
Within the chapel transept stands the while-
The rower on the waters pauseth still;

The lonely wanderer on the distant hill

Hears the chimes rise, and turns him with a smile-
The workman drops his labour at the peal;

His wife and children don their best array;
And the whole City in its loyal zeal

Hastes at the tidings to take holiday

Still with mad mirth the signal swells and swells;— Ring it out bravely, merry Merton bells.

[This was on the occasion of the visit of the Queen Dowager Adelaide to Oxford.]

Bells.

(Continued.)

"I love the bells that call the poor to pray."-SOUTHEY.

"Dear bells! How sweet the sound of village bells,
When on the undulating air they swim;

Now loud as welcomes, faint, now, as farewells,
And trembling all about the breezy dells,

As flutter'd by the wings of cherubim."-T. HOOD.

RATHER than this wild rioting of glee,
Pensive, I love, sweet chapel bells, to hear
Your Sabbath summons, melancholy, clear,
Distinct, and slow: yet let the music be
Mellow'd by distance ere it reaches me.

Ye reverend tow'rs, time-stain'd with many a year,
For God, not Man, your solemn voices rear;
Better such tones than those of revelry

Befit your office and your hoary age

So in some priest, in God's long service white,
After a life in holy worship spent,

Men love not sudden bursts of merriment;

But when their hearts for God he would engage, Listen entranc'd in satisfied delight.

Cherwell from the Terrace.

"See the rivers how they run

Through woods and meads, in shade and sun,
Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,

Wave succeeding wave they go,

A various journey to the deep,

Like human life, to endless sleep."-DYER.

'TIS Evening!-With a mind to which the shade
Somewhat of its own sombre hues hath lent,
On the old terrace-wall far forward bent,

I watch, while slowly the last sunbeams fade
Behind the trees of Christ-Church' lengthen'd glade,
Cherwell, thy tributary waters glide
Onward to Isis' breast, a silver tide,

Winding, mid willow-drooping banks embay'd—
Yea! typical thine unambitious flow,

Of those brief years to lone seclusion given,
When studious days in modest current go,
Noiseless, unruffled, swift, unsullied, even,
Unrippled, foamless, eddyless, till hurl'd
Into the larger waters of the world!