Already with thee! tender is the night,

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they ! And haply the queen-moon is on her throne

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
Clustered around by all her starry fays;

While barred clouds bloom the soft dying day,
But here there is no light,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Through verdurous blooms and winding mossy Among the river sallows, borne aloft
ways.

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, The redbreast whistles from a garden croft, But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet

And gathering swallows twitter from the skies. Wherewith the seasonable month endows The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

Sonnets. White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine ;

[On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.] Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves ;

Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And mid-May's eldest child,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen ; The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

Round many western islands have I been The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told Darkling I listen; and for many a time

That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne: I have been half in love with easeful Death,

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme,

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: To take into the air my quiet breath;

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

When a new planet swims into his ken; To cease upon the midnight with no pain,

Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad He stared at the Pacific—and all his men In such an ecstacy!

Looked at each other with a wild surmise Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain

Silent, upon a peak in Darien. To thy high requiem become a sod.

[The Human Seasons.) Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!

Four seasons fill the measure of the year; No hungry generations tread thee down;

There are four seasons in the mind of man : The voice I hear this passing night was heard

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear In ancient days by emperor and clown:

Takes in all beauty with an easy span : Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

He has his Summer, when luxuriously Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,

Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves She stood in tears amid the alien corn;

To ruminate, and by such dreaming nigh
The same that ofttimes hath

Is nearest unto heaven : quiet coves
Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam

His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

He furleth close; contented so to look Forlorn ! the very word is like a bell

On mists in idleness to let fair things To toll me back from thee to my sole self!

Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook. Adieu!' the fancy cannot cheat so well

He has his Winter too of pale misfeature, As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.

Or else he would forego his mortal nature. Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades

[On England.] Past the near meadows, over the hill-stream,

Happy is England ! I could be content
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep

To see no other verdure than its own;
In the next valley's glades :

To feel no other breezes than are blown
Was it a vision or a waking dream?

Through its tall woods with high romances blent; Fled is that music:-do I wake or sleep? . Yet do I sometimes feel a languishment

For skies Italian, and an inward groan
To Autumn.

To sit upon an Alp as on a throne,

And half forget what world or wordling meant. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness !

Happy is England, sweet her artless daughters; Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Enough their simple loveliness for me; Conspiring with him how to load and bless

Enough their whitest arms in silence clinging: With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves

Yet do I often warmly burn to see run;

Beauties of deeper glance, and hear their singing, To bend with apples the mossed cottage trees,

And float with them about their summer waters. And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells

Lines. With a sweet kernel ; to set budding more,

['The poet Keats walked in the Highlands, not with the And still more, later flowers for the bees,

joyousness, the rapture, of the young Rousseau, but in that Until they think warm days will never cease, hallowed pleasure of the soul which, in its fulness, is akin to For summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells. pain. The following extract of a poem, not published in his

works, proves his intensity of feeling, even to the dread of Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store ?

madness. It was written while on his journey, soon after bis Sometimes, whoever seeks abroad may find pilgrimage to the birthplace of Burns, not for the game of the Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

world, but as a record for himself of the temper of his mind at Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; the time. It is a sure index to the more serious traits in his Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

character; but Keats, neither in writing nor in speaking, could Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook affect a sentiment-his gentle spirit knew not how to counter

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers; feit.'- New Monthly Magazine, 1822.] And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

There is a charm in footing slow Steady thy laden head across a brook ;

Across a silent plain, Or by a cider-press with patient look,

Where patriot battle has been fought, Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where glory had the gain :

*

DR REGINALD HEBER,

There is a pleasure on the heath,

He has also given a striking sketch of the Druses, Where Druids old have been,

the hardy mountain race descended from the CruWhere mantles gray have rustled by,

saders :
And swept the nettles green:
There is a joy in every spot,

Fierce, hardy, proud, in conscious freedom bold,
Made known in days of old,

Those stormy seats the warrior Druses hold ;
New to the feet, although each tale

From Norman blood their lofty line they trace,
A hundred times be told.

Their lion-courage proves their generous race,

They, only they, while all around them kneel
Ay, if a madman could have leave

In sullen homage to the Thracian steel,
To pass a healthful day,

Teach their pale despot's waning moon to fear
To tell his forehead's swoon and faint

The patriot terrors of the mountain spear.
When first began decay.

Yes, valorous chiefs, while yet your sabres shine,

The native guard of feeble Palestine,
One hour half idiot he stands

O, ever thus, by no vain boast dismayed,
By mossy waterfall,

Defend the birthright of the cedar shade!
But in the very next he reads

What though no more for you the obedient gale
His soul's memorial.

Swells the white bosom of the Tyrian sail;
He reads it on the mountain's height,

Though now no more your glittering marts unfold
Where chance he may sit down

Sidonian dyes and Lusitanian gold ;
Upon rough marble diadem-

Though not for you the pale and sickly slave
That hill's eternal crown!

Forgets the light in Ophir's wealthy cave;
Yet be his anchor e'er so fast,

Yet yours the lot, in proud contentment blest,
Room is there for a prayer,

Where cheerful labour leads to tranquil rest.
That man may never lose his mind

No robber-rage the ripening harvest knows;
On mountains black and bare.

And unrestrained the generous vintage flows:
That he may stray, league after league,

Nor less your sons to manliest deeds aspire ;

And Asia's mountains glow with Spartan fire.
Some great birthplace to find,
And keep his vision clear from speck,

So when, deep sinking in the rosy main,
His inward sight unblind!

The western sun forsakes the Syrian plain,
His watery rays refracted lustre shed,
And pour their latest light on Carmel's head.

Yet shines your praise, amid surrounding gloom, DR REGINALD HEBER, bishop of Calcutta, was

As the lone lamp that trembles in the tomb; born April 21, 1783, at Malpas in Cheshire, where For few the souls that spurn a tyrant's chain, his father had a living. In his seventeenth year And small the bounds of freedom's scanty reign. he was admitted of Brazen-nose college, Oxford, and soon distinguished himself by his classical at- admired, and all looked forward to the maturity of

While his poem of Palestine' was universally tainments. In 1802 he obtained the university prize a genius so rich in promise, Heber continued his for Latin hexameters, his subject being the Carmen studies with unabated industry. He made considerSeculare. Applying himself to English verse, Heber, able progress in mathematics and in the higher in 1803, composed his poem of Palestine, which classics. In 1805 he took his degree of B. A., and has been considered the best prize poem the uni- the same year gained the prize for the English versity has ever produced. Parts of it were set to essay; the subject, The Sense of Honour. He was music; and it had an extensive sale. Previous to elected to a fellowship at All Souls college, and its recitation in the theatre of the university, the soon after went abroad, travelling over Germany, young author read it to Sir Walter Scott, then on a Russia, and the Crimea. On his return he took visit to Oxford; and Scott observed, that in the his degree of A. M. at Oxford. He appeared again verses on Solomon's temple, one striking circum- as a poet in 1809, his subject being Europe, or Lines stance had escaped him-namely, that no tools were

on the Present War. The struggle in Spain formed used in its construction. Reginald retired for a the predominating theme of Heber's poem. He was few minutes to the corner of the room, and returned now presented to the living of Hodnet; and at the with the beautiful lines

same time he married Amelia, daughter of Dr No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung;

Shipley, dean of St Asaph. The duties of a parish Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.

pastor were discharged by Heber with unostenMajestic silence!

tatious fidelity and application. He also applied

his vigorous intellect to the study of divinity, and His picture of Palestine, in its now fallen and deso- in 1815 preached the Bampton Lecture, the subject late state, is pathetic and beautiful :-

selected by him for a course of sermons being the Reft of thy sons, amid thy foes forlorn,

Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter. Mourn, widowed queen! forgotten Sion, mourn !

He was an occasional contributor to the Quarterly Is this thy place, sad city, this thy throne,

Review; and in 1822 he wrote a copious life of Where the wild desert rears its craggy stone?

Jeremy Taylor, and a review of his writings for While suns unblessed their angry lustre fling,

a complete edition of Taylor's works. The same And wayworn pilgrims seek the scanty spring ? year he was elected, by the benchers of Lincoln's Where now thy pomp, which kings with envy viewed ? Inn, preacher to their society. Here he had chamWhere now thy might, which all those kings subdued ? bers in London, an addition of about £600 to his No martial myriads muster in thy gate;

yearly income, and his duty was only preaching No suppliant nations in thy temple wait;

thirteen sermons in the year. An office so honourNo prophet-bards, the glittering courts among, able, from the high character and talents of the Wake the full lyre, and swell the tide of song:

electors, and the eminent persons by whom it has But lawless Force, and meagre Want are there, been held, is usually considered a stepping-stone to And the quick-darting eye of restless Fear,

a bishopric. To this honour in its highest formWhile cold Oblivion, 'mid thy ruins laid,

that of a spiritual peer of the realm-Heber might Folds his dank wing beneath the ivy shade.

now have looked forward with confidence ; but a strong sense of duty and desire of Christian useful- one of his admirers in India remarked, rendered his ness prevented the prospect being realised. It was course in life, from the moment that he was crowned under such feelings, and contrary to the advice of with academical honours till the day of his death, prudent friends, that he accepted, in 1823, the diffi- one track of light, the admiration of Britain and of cult task of bishop of Calcutta. With his family India. The widow of Dr Heber has published a Me

moir of his Life, with selections from his letters; and also a Narrative of his Journey through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay. In these works the excellent prelate is seen to great advantage, as an acute and lively observer, graphic in his descriptions both of scenery and manners, and everywhere animated with feelings of Christian zeal and benevolence. As a poet, Heber is always elegant, and often striking. His hymns are peculiarly touching and impressive, and musical in versification. The highest honours of the lyre he probably never could have attained ; for he is deficient in originality, and is more rhetorical than passionate or imaginative.

Passage of the Red Sea.

[From • Palestine.]
For many a coal-black tribe and cany spear,
The hireling guards of Misraim's throne, were there.
From distant Cush they trooped, a warrior train,
Siwah's green isle and Senaar's marly plain :
On either wing their fiery coursers check
The parched and sinewy sons of Amalek ;
While close behind, inured to feast on blood,
Decked in Behemoth's spoils, the tall Shangalla strode.
'Mid blazing helms and bucklers rough with gold,

Saw ye how swift the scythed chariots rolled !
Heber's Parish Church.

Lo, these are they whom, lords of Afric's fates, he arrived safely at his destination on the 10th of Old Thebes hath poured through all her hundred gates, October ; and no man could have entered on his mis- Mother of armies! How the emeralds glowed, sion with a more Christian or apostolic spirit. During

Where, flushed with power and vengeance, Pharaoh

rode ! the ensuing year, he was engaged in visiting the And stoled in white, those brazen wheels before, several European stations in Bengal and the upper Osiris ark his swarthy wizards bore; provinces of Hindostan. In January 1825 he made And still responsive to the trunipet's cry, a similar tour to the stations under the Bombay go- The priestly sistrum murmured – Victory! vernment, consecrating churches at various places. In May 1825 he held his episcopal visitation at Bom- Why swell these shouts that rend the desert's gloom! bay. During this progress he laid the foundation These flocks and herds—this faint and weary train

Whom come ye forth to combat?—warriors, whom! of two central schools. He also visited the Deccan, Red from the scourge, and recent from the chain ! Ceylon, and Madras, on his return to Bengal, per- God of the poor, the poor and friendless save! forming at each station the active duties of his Giver and Lord of freedom, help the slave ! sacred office. His whole energies appear to have North, south, and west, the sandy whirlwinds fly, been devoted to the propagation of Christianity in the circling horns of Egypt's chivalry. the East. In 1826 the bishop made a journey to On earth’s last margin throng the weeping train; Travencore, accompanied by the Rev. Mr Doran, of Their cloudy guide moves on :- And must we swim the Church Missionary Society. He preached, con- the main ?' firmed, and visited his Christian

communities with Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood, his usual affection and ardour. On the 1st of April Nor bathed a fetlock in the nauseous flood; he arrived at Trichinopoly, and had twice service on He comes-their leader comes !-the man of God the day following. He went the next day, Monday, O'er the wide waters lifts his mighty rod, at six o'clock in the morning, to see the native And onward treads. The circling waves retreat, Christians in the fort, and attend divine service. In hoarse deep murmurs, from his holy feet; He then returned to the house of a friend, and went And the chased surges, inly roaring, show into the bath preparatory to his dressing for break. The hard wet sand and coral hills below. fast. His servant conceiving he remained too long, With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell, entered the room, and found the bishop dead at the Down, down they pass—a steep and slippery dell; bottom of the bath. Medical assistance was applied, Around them rise, in pristine chaos hurled, but every effort proved ineffectual; death had been The ancient rocks, the secrets of the world; caused by apoplexy. The loss of so valuable a And Aowers that blush beneath the ocean green, public man, equally beloved and venerated, was And caves, the sea-calves' low-roofed haunt, are seen. inourned by all classes, and every honour was paid Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread; to his memory. Much might have been anticipated, The beetling waters storm above their head; from the zeal and learning of Heber, in elucidation while far behind retires the sinking day, of the antiquities of India, and the moral and reli- And fades on Edom's hills its latest ray. gious improvement of its people, had his valuable Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light, life been spared. At the time of his death he was or dark to them or cheerless came the night. only in his forty-third year—a period too short to Still in their van, along that dreadful road, have developed those talents and virtues which, as Blazed broad and fierce the brandished torch of God.