DAVID'S GRIEF FOR HIS CHILD. And hushed With more than stillness was the room where lay 161 To thy bright mercy-seat the way is far! How fail the weak words while the heart keeps on! The king's son on his mother's breast. His And when the spirit mournfully at last Or something that would fain have been a Crept to the threshold and looked earnsmile estly Played in his parted mouth; and, though his Where the king lay. And still, while Bathlids Hid not the blue of his unconscious eyes, Heard not the voice of the complaining child, sheba Held the unmoving child upon her knees, And, gathering with fearful looks apart, And the king arose Nor breath from out the room, nor foot astir, And gazed on them a moment, and with But morning there so welcomeless and still, He groaned and turned upon his face. The nights Had wasted and the mornings come and days Crept through the sky unnumbered by the king voice Of quick, uncertain utterance he asked, But when they looked to see him fall Since the child sickened, and without the Upon his face and rend himself and weepFor while the child was sick his agony Would bear no comforters and they had door, Upon the bare earth prostrate, he had lain, And filled his prayer with agony. O God! thought His heartstrings with the tidings must give way Behold! his face grew calm, and, with his Gathered together like his kingly wont, And David came, The child is dead, and I shall go to him, NATHANIEL P. WILLIS. PICTURE OF WAR. But mark yon war-worn man who looks on With thought and valor mirrored in his eye: Can fright the vision of his home away— charm, Speed to his sword and vigor to his arm; SPIRIT of light and life, when battle Fronts the steeled foe and mingles in the rears Her fiery brow and her terrific spears, war. When red-mouthed cannon to the clouds up- The cannon's hushed; nor drum nor clarion roar And gasping thousands make their beds in gore, While on the billowy bosom of the air And hearst each groan that gurgles from the List! War-peals thunder on the battle-field, And see on this rent mound, where daisies And many a hand grasps firm the glittering shield, As on, with helm and plume, the warriors come, And the glad hills their sprung, A battle-steed beneath his rider flung; The first, with hearts that consecrate the Ghastly and grimly stare upon the skies. deed, All eager rush to vanquish or to bleed, Like young waves racing in the morning sun, Afar, with bosom bared unto the breeze, knees, AP APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. Enamored. Then she fixed full POLLONIUS, who was born about 235 B. C., was a native of Naucratis, in Egypt, and resided at Alexandria, but migrated to Rhodes, where he opened a school of rhetoric, and where he recited in public his poem on the Argonauts, which was rewarded by the Rhodians with the freedom of their city. Hence he acquired the surname of "Rhodius." Rhodius." He was recalled by Ptolemy Euergetes, and succeeded Callimachus as keeper of the Alexandrian Library. He wrote treatises on the "Origin of Alex- A lambent flame and snatched the darted andria" and on "Cnidos," and other works, which are lost. If the sublime be the characteristic of Homer, the romantic is that of Apollonius, and in nature and tenderness he needs not shun a comparison even with Homer. No poet has ever excelled the Rhodian in the refined display of female character, in the gay amenities, the modest reserves, the delicate artifices, the conflicting uncertainties and the poignant sensibilities of female love. Dido is but a feeble copy of the interesting and impassioned Medea. Elegance of style, picturesqueness of imagery, delicacy of imagination, Apollonius Rhodius may at least dispute with Virgil, and he possesses also that fresh and vigorous simplicity which may be said to be almost peculiar to the poets of Greece. MEDEA GIVES JASON THE DRUG. FROM THE GREEK OF APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. So said the youth, with admiration high Gilding his speech, but she, her eyes cast down, forth rays That trembled from his eyes. Her inmost Rests, in her bloom, below: her sire the name Of Myrtis gave, her birth and lineage high, Smiled with enchanting sweetness: all her And say her bosom-friend Erinna came, soul Melted within her, of his words of praise And on this marble graved her elegy. Translation of BLAND. |