Most of all, the Spanish ballad Haunts me oft, and tarries png, Of the noble Count Arnaldos

And the sailor's mystic song.

Like the long waves on a sea-beach, Where the sand and silver shines, With a soft, monotonous cadence, Flow its unrhymed lyric lines ;

Telling how the Count Arnaldos,
With his hawk upon his hand,
Saw a fair and stately galley,
Steering onward to the land ;-

How he heard the ancient helmsman
Chant a song so wild and clear,
That the sailing sea-bird slowly
Poised upon the mast to hear,

Till his soul was full of longing, And he cried, with impulse

strong,

"Helmsman for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song!"

"Wouldst thou,"-so the helmsman answered,

Learn the secret of the sea? "Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!"

In each sail that skims the horizon, In cach land ward-blowing breeze, I behold that stately galley,

Hear those mournful melodies;

Till my soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me.

TWILIGHT.

THE twilight is sad and cloudy, The wind blows wild and free, And like the wings of sea-birds Flash the white caps of the sea.

But in the fisherman's cottage There shines a ruddier light

And a little face at the window Peers out into the night.

Close, close it is pressed to the window,

As if those childish eyes Were looking into the darkness, To see some form arise.

And a woman's waving shadow
Is passing to and fro,
Now rising to the ceiling,

Now bowing and bending low. What tale do the roaring ocean, And the night-wind, bleak and wild,

As they beat at the crazy casement, Tell to that little child?

And why do the roaring ocean,

And the night-wind, wild and bleak,

As they beat at the heart of the mother,

Drive the color from her cheek?

SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.!

SOUTHWARD with fleet of ice

Sailed the corsair Death; Wild and fast blew the blast, And the east-wind was his breath.

His lordly ships of ice

Glistened in the sun;
On each side, like pennons wide,
Flashing crystal streamlets run.

1 Sir Humphrey Gilbert. "When the wind abated and the vessels were near enough, the Admiral was seen constantly sitting in the stern, with a book in his hand. On the 9th of September he was seen for the last time, and was heard by the people of the Hind to say, We are as near heaven by sea as by land.' In the following night, the lights of the ship suddenly disappeared. The people in the other vessel kept a good look-out for him during the remainder of the voyage. On the 22d of September they arrived, through much tempest and peril, at Falmouth. But nothing more was seen or heard of the Admiral.-Belknap's American Biography, I. 203.

And steadily against its solid form Press the great shoulders of the hurricane.

The sea-bird wheeling round it, with the din

Of wings and winds and solitary cries,

Blinded and maddened by the light within,

Dashes himself against the glare, and dies.

A new Prometheus, chained upon the rock,

Still grasping in his hand the fire of Jove,

It does not hear the cry, nor heed the shock,

But hails the mariner with words of love.