*

The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor* eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,*
When the morning star* shines dead;
35 As on the jag of a mountain crag,

40

Which an earthquake* rocks and swings,
An eagle, alit, one moment may sit,
In the light of its golden wings.

Sanguine, blood-red; it also means being ardent, hopeful. Meteor, flashing, like a meteor or falling star.

Leaps on the back, rises above the back of the clouds.

Rack, thin, broken clouds drifting across

And when sunset may breathe, from the lit the sky.
sea beneath,

*

Its ardours of rest and love,

And the crimson pall of eve may fall

From the depth of heaven above,

With wings folded I rest, on mine airy nest,
As still as a brooding dove.

45 That orbed * maiden, with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the moon,

50

Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn ;

And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,

Morning-star, the planet Venus, when it rises before the sun, and shines in the morning.

Earthquake, a convulsion or shaking of the earth.

Ardour, warmth of passion or feeling; eagerness.

Orbèd, in the form of an orb or sphere; circular.

May have broken the woof* of my tent's thin The woof, the cross

roof,

The stars peep behind her and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl* and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,

55 When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.

I bind the sun's throne* with a burning zone,
60 And the moon's* with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes* are dim, and the stars reel and
swim,

65

70

When the whirlwinds* my banner unfurl.*
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,

Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof:
The mountains its columns be.

The triumphal arch* through which I march
With hurricane,* fire, and snow,

When the powers of the air are chained to my
chair

Is the million-coloured bow;
The sphere-fire* above its soft colours wove,
While the moist earth was laughing below.

threads woven into and crossing the warp, which extends lengthwise.

Whirl, to turn round very rapidly.

Daughter of earth and water, the vapour of which the clouds are

formed is raised from

the earth and the water by the heat of the sun.

Nursling, child. Pavilion of heaven, the sky; because it appears to be spread

out over our heads like a canopy or tent. Convex, curved like

the outer surface of

a ball or globe. Cenotaph, an empty tomb, or memorial built to a person who is buried elsewhere.

I am the daughter of earth and water,*
And the nursling* of the sky;

I

pass through the pores of the ocean and 75 shores;

I change, but I cannot die.

For after the rain, when with never a stain

The pavilion of heaven * is bare,

And the winds and sunbeams with their con

I

vex* gleams

Build up the blue dome of air,
silently laugh at my own cenotaph,*
And out of the caverns of rain,

Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from
the tomb,

I arise and unbuild it again.

80

Thrive, to succeed.

ADVICE TO A YOUTH.-Jonson.

Bauble, a trifle, a

thing of very small value.

Foolish brain, a silly

person.
Desert, being worthy
of reward; merit.

one's own

position in society.

in self-respect.

Or

every

*

*

*

LEARN to be wise, and practise how to thrive;
That would I have you do: and not to spend
Your coin on every bauble* that you fancy,
foolish brain* that humours you.
I would not have you to invade each place,
Nor thrust yourself on all societies,
Till men's affections, or your own desert,'
Rank, here means Should worthily invite you to your rank.*
proper He that is so respectless* in his courses,*
Respectless, wanting Oft sells his reputation* at cheap market.
Nor would I you should melt away yourself
In flashing bravery,* lest, while you affect
To make a blaze of gentry
* to the world,
A little puff of scorn extinguish it;
And you be left like an unsavoury snuff,
Whose property is only to offend.
I'd have you sober, and contain yourself,
Not that your sail be bigger than your boat;
But moderate your expenses now, at first,
As you may keep the same proportion still:
Nor stand so much on your gentility,*
Which is an airy and mere borrowed thing,
From dead men's dust, and bones; and none

Reputation, character, good name. Courses, habits.

Flashing bravery, ex

travagance in dress. Affect, pretend.

Blaze of gentry, preposition superior to that which one holds.

tending to be in a

Your gentility, the fact of your being a gentleman by birth.

of yours,
Except you make, or hold it.

THE RÉVEILLÉ."-Bret Harte.

BRET HARTE (1835- ) is a popular American writer, and author of some humorous poems.

5

ΤΟ

15

20

25

Saying, "Come,

Freemen, come!

Lo, behold, look.

Ere your heritage * be wasted," said the quick Heritage, that which

alarming drum.

"Let me of my heart take counsel:
War is not of life the sum;

Who shall stay and reap the harvest

When the autumn days shall come?"

But the drum

Echoed,*
* "Come!

one claims by right of birth.

Counsel, advice.

Echoed, to give back

Death shall reap the braver harvest," said the a sound.

solemn-sounding drum.

You must do the sum to prove it," said the

Yankee-answering drum.

Better there in death united, than in life a

recreant,*-come !"

* Réveillé, the beat of drum or sound of trumpet at daybreak (Fr. réveiller, to awake, to stir up).

Thus they answered,-hoping, fearing,
Some in faith, and doubting some,
Till a trumpet-voice proclaiming,
Said, "My chosen people, come !"
Then the drum,

Lo! was dumb,

For the great heart of the nation, throbbing,
answered, “Lord, we come!”

THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS.-Longfellow.

Schooner, a ship with two masts.

Skipper, the captain of a merchant ship.

Ope, open.

Veering, varying,
changeable.
Flaw, a sudden
gust of wind, us-
ually termed a
squall.
Spanish Main,
that part of the
Atlantic Ocean
which washes
the north part of
South America,
from the Lee-
ward Islands to
the Isthmus of
Darien. The
term is also ap-
plied to the
coast.

Hurricane, a fu-
rious storm.
Golden ring, a
halo or luminous
ring around the
moon, supposed
to indicate the
approach of

stormy weather.

Amain, with

great force.

It was the schooner * Hesperus,

That sailed the wintry sea;

And the skipper * had taken his little daughter
To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,

Her cheeks like the dawn of day,

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds
That ope * in the month of May.

The skipper, he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth;

And he watched how the veering * flaw * did blow
The smoke now west, now south.

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,*
And to-night no moon we see !"

And the skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and colder blew the wind,
A gale from the north-east;
The snow fell hissing in the brine,

And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;

15

20

30

She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable's * length.

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,

And do not tremble so ;

For I can weather* the roughest gale,
That ever wind did blow."

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat,
Against the stinging blast;

35 He cut a rope from a broken spar,*

40

45

50

"O father! I see a gleaming light;

Oh say, what may it be?

But-the father answered never a word

A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,

The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands, and prayed
That saved she might be;

55 And she thought of Him who stilled the waves
On the lake of Galilee.

60

And fast, through the midnight dark and dear,

Through the whistling sleet and snow,

Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept

*

Towards the reef of Norman's Woe.

And ever, the fitful gusts between,
A sound came from the land:
It was the sound of the trampling surf,
On the rocks and the hard sea sand.

Cable, a thick strong rope (240 to hold ships at yards long), used

anchor, or to tow vessels in large rivers.

Weather, endure.

Spar, a small beam.

Reef, ridge of

rocks in the sea, near the surface.