HARP OF THE NORTH. Harp of the North, farewell! The hills grow dark, On purple peaks a deeper shade descending; The deer half-seen are to the covert wending. And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy; With distant echo from the fold and lea, And herdboy's evening pipe and hum of housing bee. Yet once again farewell, thou minstrel Harp! Yet once again forgive my feeble sway; May idly cavil at an idle lay. Through secret woes the world has never known, And bitterer was the grief devoured alone. Scott. CITHARA CALEDONIÆ. ORTA Caledoniis valeas, Cithara, orta sub antris ! Purpureis major montibus umbra cadit : Cerva petit tectum vix bene visa nemus. Et rudibus ventis, quæ rudiora sonas; Et pecudum a longo vox repetita jugo; Nec vespertini cessat pastoris arundo, Nec prima reducum nocte susurrus apum. Ergo iterum valeas, Cithara, acceptissima vati! De nostris habeas crimina nulla modis : Non horrere meum est linguam censoris acuti, Si qua levi dicto vox leve vellat opus. Debuit arcanis mens mea pressa malis ; Curaque erat gravior, quam sine teste tuli. Quod spiro et valeo, muneris omne tui est. B. H. D. MOLOCH. My sentence is for open war: of wiles More unexpert I boast not; them let those Contrive who need, or when they need, not now. For while they sit contriving, shall the rest, Millions that stand in arms and longing wait The signal to ascend, sit lingering here Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, The prison of his tyranny, who reigns By our delay? No, let us rather choose, Armed with hell flames and fury, all at once, O’er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, Turning our tortures into horrid arms Against the torturer; when to meet the noise Of his almighty engine he shall hear Infernal thunder, and for lightning, see Among his angels, and his throne itself Mixed with Tartarean sulphur, and strange fire, His own invented torments. Milton. MOLOCH LOQUITUR. Bella placent nobis : nobis ars unica bellum, Armati simul irruimus, cursuque per auras Præcipiti summas cæli superavimus arces, Torquentes nova tela manu tormentaque ab ipso Addita, et in coelum coeli convertimus iras. Audiet ille suum ad fulmen reboantia regna G. C. THE DILEMMA. If all the world were apple pie, And all the sea were ink, GAMMER GURTON. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. Not a sound was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the ramparts we hurried ; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot, O’er the grave where our hero we buried. We buried him deep at dead of night, The sod with our bayonets turning, And the lanthorn dimly burning. No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Nor in sheet or shroud we wound him, But he lay like a warrior taking his rest With his martial cloak around him. Few and short were the prayers we said, And we spoke not a word of sorrow; And we bitterly thought of the morrow. We thought as we hollowed his narrow bed, And smoothed down his lonely pillow, That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow ! |