Day by day more harsh and cruel Seem'd the Captain's mood. So they past by capes and islands, On a day when they were going In the north, her canvas flowing, Then the Captain's colour heighten'd, "Chase," he said: the ship flew forward, Then they look'd at him they hated, Mute with folded arms they waited But they heard the foeman's thunder All the air was torn in sunder, Spars were splinter'd, decks were shatter❜d, Bullets fell like rain; Over mast and deck were scatter'd Blood and brains of men. Spars were splinter'd; decks were broken: Every mother's son Down they dropt - no word was spoken - On the decks as they were lying, In their blood, as they lay dying, With one smile of still defiance Sold him unto shame. Shame and wrath his heart confounded, Pale he turn'd and red, Till himself was deadly wounded Dismal error! fearful slaughter! Years have wander❜d by, The form, the form alone is eloquent! My fancy made me for a moment blest To find my heart so near the beauteous (breast That once had power to rob it of content. A moment came the tenderness of tears, The phantom of a wish that once could (move, A ghost of passion that no smiles re(store For ah! the slight coquette,she cannot love, And if you kiss'd her feet a thousand years, She still would take the praise, and care (no more. III. Wan Sculptor weepest thou to take the cast Of those dead lineäments that near thee lie? O sorrowest thou, pale Painter, for the past, In painting some dead friend from memory? Weep on: beyond his object Love can last: His object lives: more cause to weep have I: My tears, no tears of love, are flowing fast, No tears of love, but tears that Love can die. I pledge her not in any cheerful cup, SONG. LADY, let the rolling drums Beat to battle where thy warrior stands: Now thy face across his fancy comes, And gives the battle to his hands. Lady, let the trumpets blow, Clasp thy little babes about thy knee: Now their warrior father meets the foe, And strikes him dead for thine and thee. SONG. HOME they brought him slain with spears. Sounding on the morrow. The Sun peep'd in from open field, "Ohush, my joy, my sorrow." ON A MOURNER. NATURE, so far as in her lies, To every land beneath the skies, Counts nothing that she meets with base, NORTHERN FARMER. DOSN'T thou 'ear my 'erse's legs, as they canters awaäy? II. Woä-theer's a craw to pluck wi' tha, Sam: yon's parson's 'ouse- III. Me an' thy muther, Sammy, 'as beän a-talkin' o' thee; *This week. Thou's been talkin' to muther, an' she beän a tellin' it me. IV. Seeä'd her todaäy goä by-Saäint's-daay-they was ringing the bells. She's abeauty thou thinks-an' soä is scoors o' gells, Them as 'as munny an' all-wot's a beauty?-the flower as blaws. But proputty, proputty sticks: an' proputty, proputty graws. V. Do'ant be stunt: taäke time: I knaws what maäkes tha sa mad. VI. An' I went wheer munny war: an' thy mother coom to 'and, But warn't she as good to cuddle an' kiss as a lass ass 'ant' nowt? VII. Parson's lass 'ant nowt, an' she weänt 'a nowt when 'e's dead, VIII. An thin 'e coom'd to the parish wi' lots o 'Varsity debt, Stook to his taaïl they did, an' 'e 'ant got shut on 'em yet. An' 'e ligs on 'is back i' the grip, wi' noän to lend 'im a shove, IX. Luvv? what's luvv? thou can luvv thy lass an' 'er munny too, Could'n I luvv thy muther by cause o' 'er munny laaïd by? Ay an' thy muther says thou wants to marry the lass, Cooms of a gentleman burn: an' we boäth on us thinks tha an ass. Woa then, wiltha? danghta! Break me a bit o' the esh for his 'eäd, lad, out o' the fence! XII. Tis'n them as 'as munny as breaks into 'ouses an' steäls, XIII. Them or thir feythers, tha sees, mun 'a beän a laäzy lot, * Obstinate. § Or fow-welter'd, **Makes nothing. + Earn. said of a sheep lying on its back in the furrow. + The flies are as fierce as anything. Fur work mun 'a gone to the gittin' whiniver munny was got. XIV. Loook thou theer wheer Wrigglesby beck comes out by the 'ill! XV. Thim's my noätions, Sammy, wheerby I means to stick; - THE GOLDEN SUPPER. [This poem is founded upon a story in Boccaccio. A young lover, Julian, whose cousin and foster-sister, Camilla, has been wedded to his friend and rival, Lionel, endeavours to narrate the story of his own love for her, and the strange sequel of it. He speaks of, having been haunted in delirium by visions and the sound of bells, sometimes tolling for a funeral, and at last, ringing for a marriage; but he breaks away, overcome, as he approaches the Event, and a witness to it completes the tale.] He flies the event: he leaves the event to me: Poor Julian-how he rush'd away; the bells, Those marriage bells, echoing in ear and (heart But cast a parting glance at me, you saw, As who should say,continue." Well, he had One golden hour of triumph shall I say? Solace at least before he left his home. And thus he stay'd and would not look at (her No not for months: but, when the eleventh (moon After their marriage lit the lover's Bay, Heard yet once more the tolling bell, and (said, Would you could toll' me out of life, but (found All softly as his mother broke it to him- All that look'd on her had pronounced her (dead. And so they bore her (for in Julian's land They never nail a dumb head up in elm), Bore her free-faced to the free airs of heaven, And laid her in the vault of her own kin. What did he then? not die: he is here and (hale Not plunge headforemost from the moun(tain there, And leave the name of Lover's Leap: not he: He knew the meaning of the whisper now, Thought that he knew it. This, I stay'd (for this; O love, I have not seen you for so long. Now, now, will I go down into the grave, I will be all alone with all I love, The fancy stirr'd him so He rose and went, and entering the dim (vault, And, making there a sudden light, beheld He came in, and now striding fast, and now There the good mother's kindly ministering, Where?" till the things familiar to her Had made a silent answer: then she spoke Send! bid him come;" but Lionel was away- (where. It was my wish," he said, "to pass, to sleep, To rest, to be with her till the great day Peal'd on us with that music which rights,He (all, And raised us hand in hand." And kneeling (there Down in the dreadful dust that once was (man, Dust, as he said, that once was loving hearts, Not such as mine, no, nor for such as her — And silence made him bold nay, but I He reverenced his dear lady even in death; But, placing his true hand upon her heart, ,,O, you warm heart," he moan'd,,,not even (death Can chill you all at once:" then starting, (thought His dreams had come again. „Do I wake or (sleep? Or am I made immortal, or my love Mortal once more?" It beat the heart(it beat: Faint but it beat; at which his own began The feebler motion underneath his hand. casts me out," she wept, „and goes" Not from believing mind, but shatter'd nerve, (turns." "Stay then a little," answer'd Julian,,,here, And I will do your will. I may not stay, Not know? with such a secret to be known. But all their house was old and loved them (both, And all the house had known the loves of Had died almost to serve them any way, |