64 HELVELLYN. And still they rowed amidst the roar Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore- For sore dismayed, through storm and shade One lovely hand she stretched for aid, 'Come back! come back!' he cried in grief, 'Across this stormy water; And I'll forgive your Highland chief, 'Twas vain the loud waves lashed the shore, The waters wild went o'er his child, And he was left lamenting. Campbell. 1 Ulva's Isle is a small island lying | Water-wraith, the spirit of the between Mull and Staffa. waters. Wight, a strong active man. A.S. 4 Scowl, frown. wiht, a creature. HEL VELLYN. I climbed the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn,1 On the right, Striden-edge round the Red-tarn was bending, One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending, When I marked the sad spot where the wanderer had died. Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain heather, How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber? When the wind waved his garment, how oft didst thou start? How many long days and long weeks didst thou number, When a Prince to the fate of the peasant has yielded, 4 And pages stand mute by the canopied pall: Through the courts, as at midnight, the torches are gleaming; But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb, When, wildered, he drops from some cliff huge in stature, And draws his last sob by the side of his dam. And more stately thy couch by this desert lake lying, Thy obsequies sung by the gray plover flying, With one faithful friend but to witness thy dying In the arms of Helvellyn and Catchedicam, E Scott. 66 KILLED AT THE FORD. 1 Helvellyn, a high mountain on the borders of Cumberland and Westmoreland, 3117 feet above sealevel. 2 The Pilgrim of Nature was a young gentleman who, in the spring of 1805, lost his way among the mountains mentioned in the first stanza. His remains were found three months after, faithfully guarded by his terrier. 3 Requiem, funeral service. 4 Scutcheons or escutcheons, shields on which the coat-of-arms of a family is represented. KILLED AT THE FORD. He is dead, the beautiful youth, Whose voice was as blithe as a bugle call, Whom all eyes followed with one consent, The cheer of whose laugh, and whose pleasant word, Only last night, as we rode along, He was humming the words of some old song: 'Two red roses he had on his cap, And another he bore at the point of his sword'— Sudden and swift a whistling ball Came out of a wood, and the voice was still; We lifted him on his saddle again, And through the mire, and the mist, and the rain And laid him as if asleep on his bed; And I saw by the light of the surgeon's lamp, Two white roses upon his cheeks, And I saw in a vision how far and fleet And a bell was tolled in that far-off town, For one who had passed from cross to crown— 1 Picket-guard, a small company of men detached from the main body Longfellow. of an army to act as an outpost or guard. TO DAFFODILS. Fair Daffodils, we weep to see Until the hasting day But to the evensong; And, having prayed together, we We have short time to stay, as you; As you, or any thing. We die As your hours do, and dry Away, Like to the summer's rain; Or as the pearls of morning's dew, Ne'er to be found again. Herrick. |