There is a small, low cape-there, where the moon Weeds and small shells have, like a garland, Upon it, and the wind's and wave's low moan, Remember'd. Here, by human foot unstirr'd, A what? a name-perchance ne'er graven there; At whom the urchin, with his mimic eye, Sits peering through a skull, and laughs continually. THE MOUNTAIN-GIRL. THE clouds, that upward curling from Melt into air: gone are the showers, Breathes in the sunshine stirr'd; A thing all lightness, life, and glee; With glossy ringlet, brow that is As falling snow-flake white, She stops, looks up-what does she see? Upon a balcony: High, leaning from a window forth, From curtains that half-shroud Nor flower, nor lady fair she sees That mountain-girl-but dumb That flower to her is as a tone Of some forgotten song, She sees beside the mountain-brook, The rivulet, the olive shade, The grassy plot, the flock; That springs beneath the rock. Her dreaming eye depart; And hence her eye is dim, her cheek Has lost its livelier glow; THE FALL OF THE OAK. A GLORIOUS tree is the old gray oak: He has stood for a thousand years, Has stood and frown'd On the trees around, Like a king among his peers; He has stood like a tower As from plates of mail, From his own limbs shaken, rattle; 'He has toss'd them about, and shorn the tops (When the storm had roused his might) Of the forest trees, as a strong man doth The autumn sun looks kindly down, And sprinkles the horn Of the owl at morn, As she hies to the old oak tree. Not a sound is heard But the thump of the thresher's flail, Or the distant cry Of the hound on the fox's trail. The forester he has whistling plunged Where few and chill The sunbeams struggling come: His axe at the root of the tree, The gray old oak, And, with lusty stroke, He wields it merrily : With lusty stroke, And the old gray oak, Through the folds of his gorgeous vest And the night-owl break From her perch in his leafy crest. She will come but to find him gone from where He stood at the break of day; Like a cloud that peals as it melts to air, He has pass'd, with a crash, away. Though the spring in the bloom and the frost in gold No more his limbs attire, On the stormy wave He shall float, and brave The blast and the battle-fire! Shall spread his white wings to the wind, And thunder on the deep, As he thunder'd when On the high and stormy steep. TO A YOUNG MOTHER. WHAT things of thee may yield a semblance meet, Voice and its sweeter echo. Time has small power O'er features the mind moulds; and such are thine, Imperishably lovely. Roses, where They once have bloom'd, a fragrance leave behind; And harmony will linger on the wind; And suns continue to light up the air, When set; and music from the broken shrine Breathes, it is said, around whose altar-stone His flower the votary has ceased to twine:Types of the beauty that, when youth is gone, Beams from the soul whose brightness mocks decline. SPRING. Now Heaven seems one bright, rejoicing eye, Puts forth, as does thy cheek, a lovelier dye, And each new morning some new songster brings. And, hark! the brooks their rocky prisons break, And echo calls on echo to awake, Like nymph to nymph. The air is rife with wings, Rustling through wood or dripping over lake. Herb, bud, and bird return--but not to me With song or beauty, since they bring not thee. JAMES G. BROOKS. [Born, 1801. Died, 1841.] THE late JAMES GORDON BROOKS was born at Red Hook, near the city of New York, on the third day of September, 1801. His father was an officer in the revolutionary army, and, after the achievement of our independence, a member of the national House of Representatives. Our author was educated at Union College, in Schenectady, and was graduated in 1819. In the following year he commenced studying the law with Mr. Justice EMOTT, of Poughkeepsie; but, though he devoted six or seven years to the acquisition of legal knowledge, he never sought admission to the bar. In 1823, he removed to New York, where he was for several years an editor of the Morning Courier, one of the most able and influential journals in this country. Mr. BROOKS began to write for the press in 1817. Two years afterward he adopted the signature of "Florio," by which his contributions to the periodicals were from that time known. In 1828, he was married. His wife, under the signature of "Norna," had been for several years a writer for the literary journals, and, in 1829.1 collection of the poetry of both was published entitled "The Rivals of Este, and other Poems, by James G. and Mary E. Brooks." The pon which gave its title to the volume was by Ms BROOKS. The longest of the pieces by her bu band was one entitled "Genius," which he ba delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of etry after the appearance of this work. Yale College, in 1827. He wrote but little p In 1830 or 1831, he removed to Winchester. in Virginia, where, for four or five years, he edited a political and literary gazette. He returned to the state of New York, in 1838, and established him self in Albany, where he remained until the 20th day of February, 1841, when he died. smoothly versified, but diffuse and carelessly whil The poems of Mr. BROOKS are spirited and ten. He was imaginative, and composed with ferent in regard to his reputation ever to rewrite remarkable ease and rapidity; but was too indi or revise his productions. GREECE-1832. LAND of the brave! where lie inurn'd The shrouded forms of mortal clay, In whom the fire of valour burn'd, And blazed upon the battle's fray: Land, where the gallant Spartan few Bled at Thermopyla of yore, When death his purple garment threw On Helle's consecrated shore! Land of the Muse! within thy bowers Her soul-entrancing echoes rung, While on their course the rapid hours Paused at the melody she sung― Till every grove and every hill, And every stream that flow'd along, From morn to night repeated still The winning harmony of song. Land of dead heroes! living slaves! Shall glory gild thy clime no more? Her banner float above thy waves Where proudly it hath swept before? Hath not remembrance then a charm To break the fetters and the chain, To bid thy children nerve the arm, And strike for freedom once again? No! coward souls, the light which shone And thou art but a shadow now, With helmet shatter'd-spear in rustThy honour but a dream--and thou Despised-degraded in the dust! Where sleeps the spirit, that of old Dash'd down to earth the Persian plume, When the loud chant of triumph told How fatal was the despot's doom?The bold three hundred-where are they, Who died on battle's gory breast? Tyrants have trampled on the clay Where death hath hush'd them into rest. Yet, Ida, yet upon thy hill A glory shines of ages fled; And fame her light is pouring still, Not on the living, but the dead! But 'tis the dim, sepulchral light, Which sheds a faint and feeble ray, As moonbeams on the brow of night, When tempests sweep upon their way. Greece! yet awake thee from thy trance, Behold, thy banner waves afar; Behold, the glittering weapons glance Along the gleaming front of war! A gallant chief, of high emprize, Is urging foremost in the field, Who calls upon thee to arise In might in majesty reveal'd. In vain, in vain the hero calls- In ruin, Freedom's battle-shroud: Such deeds as glorified their sires; Their valour's but a meteor's glare, Which gleams a moment, and expires. Lost land! where Genius made his reign, Of ignorance hath brooded long, The sons of science and of song. Thy sun hath set-the evening storm And freedom never more shall cease To pour her mournful requiem O'er blighted, lost, degraded Greece! TO THE DYING YEAR. THOU desolate and dying year! Emblem of transitory man, Since nature smiled upon thy birth, Sad alteration! now how lone, How verdureless is nature's breast, Broke on the breath of early day, Thou desolate and dying year! As beauty stretch'd upon the bier, In death's clay-cold and dark caress; Which breathes, which lingers on thee still, Yet, yet the radiance is not gone, Which shed a richness o'er the scene, Gleams upon Nature's aspect fair, Thou desolate and dying year! Since time entwined thy vernal wreath, How often love hath shed the tear, And knelt beside the bed of death; How many hearts, that lightly sprung When joy was blooming but to die, Their finest chords by death unstrung, Have yielded life's expiring sigh, And, pillow'd low beneath the clay, Have ceased to melt, to breathe, to burn; The proud, the gentle, and the gay, Gather'd unto the mouldering urn; While freshly flow'd the frequent tear For love bereft, affection fled; For all that were our blessings here, The loved, the lost, the sainted dead! Thou desolate and dying year! The musing spirit finds in thee Lessons, impressive and serene, Of deep and stern morality; Thou teachest how the germ of youth, Which blooms in being's dawning day, Planted by nature, rear'd by truth, Withers, like thee, in dark decay. Promise of youth' fair as the form Of Heaven's benign and golden bow, With the empyreal fire of heaven. Whose origin is from on high, Throws o'er thy morn a ray of fire, From the pure fountains of the sky; That ray which glows and brightens still Unchanged, eternal and divine; Where seraphs own its holy thrill, And bow before its gleaming shrine. Thou desolate and dying year! Prophetic of our final fall; Thy buds are gone, thy leaves are sear; And all the garniture that shed Time! Time! in thy triumphal flight, Rolling its stormy waves afar, There, in disorder, dark and wild, Are seen the fabrics once so high; Which mortal vanity had piled As emblems of eternity! And deem'd the stately piles, whose forms Frown'd in their majesty sublime, That gather'd round the brow of Time. Thou desolate and dying year! Earth's brightest pleasures fade like thine; Like evening shadows disappear, And leave the spirit to repine. Its fresh and sparkling waters on, Which destiny hath overspread; Where the death-wing of time hath sped! O! thus hath life its even-tide Of sorrow, loneliness, and grief; It withers like the yellow leaf: TO THE AUTUMN LEAF. THOU faded leaf! it seems to be But as of yesterday, On field, on flower, and spray; Then the young, fervent heart beats high, With bright, unceasing play; Is beauty in her morning pride, And hope illumes its placid tide: When hope and bliss have died! And valour's laurel wreath must fade; Must lose the freshness, and the bloom On which the beam of glory play'd; The banner waving o'er the crowd, Must sink within the shade, And warning tone in thy decay; Like thee must man to death return With his frail tenement of clay: Thy warning is of death and doom, Of genius blighted in its bloom, Of joy's beclouded ray; Life, rapture, hope, ye are as brief And fleeting as the autumn leaf! THE LAST SONG. STRIKE the wild harp yet once again! Be hush'd in death for evermore. Creative fancy, be thou still; And let oblivious Lethe pour Upon my lyre its waters chill. Strike the wild harp yet once again! Then be its fitful chords unstrung, Silent as is the grave's domain, And mute as the death-moulder'd tongue; Let not a thought of memory dwell One moment on its former song; Forgotten, too, be this farewell, Which plays its pensive strings along! Strike the wild harp yet once again! The saddest and the latest lay; Then break at once its strings in twain, And they shall sound no more for aye: And hang it on the cypress tree: The hours of youth and song have pass'd, Have gone, with all their witchery; Lost lyre! these numbers are thy last. JOY AND SORROW. Jor kneels, at morning's rosy prime, In worship to the rising sun; But Sorrow loves the calmer time, When the day-god his course hath run: When Night is on her shadowy car, Pale sorrow wakes while Joy doth sleep; And, guided by the evening star, She wanders forth to muse and weep. Joy loves to cull the summer-flower, And wreathe it round his happy brow; But when the dark autumnal hour Hath laid the leaf and blossoms low; When the frail bud hath lost its worth, And Joy hath dash'd it from his crest, Then Sorrow takes it from the earth, To wither on her wither'd breast. |