Ode to the Cuckoo.

HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove!
Thou messenger of Spring!
Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat,
And woods thy welcome sing.

What time the daisy decks the green,
Thy certain voice we hear;
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?

Delightful visitant! with thee

I hail the time of flowers,
And hear the sound of music sweet
From birds among the bowers.

The school-boy wandering through the wood,
To pull the primrose gay,
Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear,
And imitates thy lay.

What time the pea puts on the bloom
Thou fliest thy vocal vale,

An annual guest in other lands,

Another Spring to hail.

Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year!

Oh could I fly, I'd fly with thee!
We'd make, with joyful wing,
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the Spring.

LOGAN.

Stanzas.

THEY are all gone into a world of light,
And I alone sit lingering here!
Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.

It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast,
Like stars upon some gloomy grove,

Or those faint beams in which the hill is dressed,
After the sun's remove.

I see them walking in an air of glory,

Whose light doth trample on my days,
My days, which are at best but dull and hoary,
Mere glimmerings and decays.

O holy hope, and high humility,

High as the heavens above!

These are your walks, and ye have showed them me,
To kindle my cold love.

Dear, beauteous Death! the jewel of the just!
Shining no where but in the dark!

What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust,

Could man outlook that mark!

He that hath found some fledged bird's nest may know,
At first sight, if the bird be flown;

But what fair field or grove he sings in now,
That is to him unknown.

And yet as angels, in some brighter dreams,
Call to the soul, when man doth sleep,

So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes,
And into glory peep!

The Twa Sisters.

HENRY VAUGHAN.

THERE were twa sisters lived in a bouir;
Binnorie, O Binnorie;

The youngest o' them, O, she was a flouir!
By the bonnie mill-dams o' Binnorie.

There came a squire frae the west;
Binnorie, O Binnorie;

He lo'ed them baith, but the youngest best;
By the bonnie mill-dams o' Binnorie.

He gied the eldest a gay gold ring;
But he lo'ed the youngest abune a' thing.

He courted the eldest wi' broach and knife;
But he lo'ed the youngest as his life.

The eldest she was vexed sair,
And sore envied her sister fair.

And it fell ance upon a day,
The eldest to the youngest did say :

"O, sister, come to the sea strand,
And see our father's ships come to land."

She's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
And led her doun to the sea strand.

The youngest sat upon a stane;
The eldest came and threw her in.

Oh, sister, sister, lend me your hand, And shall be heir of half my land.

you

"O, sister I 'll not reach my hand,
And I'll be heir of all your land.

Shame fa' the hand that I should take!
It twinned me and my world's maik.

Your cherry cheeks and yellow hair
Had gared me gang maiden evermair."

"Oh, sister, reach me but your glove,
And you shall be sweet William's love."

"Sink on, nor hope for hand or glove;
And sweet William shall better be my love."
First she sank, and syne she swam,
Until she cam to Tweed mill-dam.

The miller's dauchter was baking breid,
And gaed for water as she had need.

"O father, father, in our mill-dam,
There's either a ladye or a milk-white swan."
The miller quickly drew his dam,
And there he found a drowned woman.

You couldna see her yellow hair,
For gowd and pearls that were sae rare.

You couldna see her middle sma',
Her gowden girdle was sae braw.
You couldna see her lilie feet,
Her gowden fringes were sae deep.

You couldna see her fingers sma',
Wï' diamond rings they were covered a'.

"Sair will they be, whae'er they be,
The hearts that live to weep for thee!"

Then by there cam a harper fine,
That harped to the king at dine.

And, when he looked that lady on,
He sighed, and made a heavy moan