He stoop'd and kiss'd the frozen cheek, 'Till bursting words—yet all too weak- "Oh, Father! it is vain I would give England's crown, my Sire! "Speak to my mighty grief; Ere now the dust hath stirr'd! Hear me but hear me !-Father, Chief, And that thou answerest not? 66 Thy silver hairs I see So still, so sadly bright! And, Father, Father! but for me, I bore thee down, high heart! at last "Thou wert the noblest King, Of all, the stateliest mien; And thou didst prove where spears were proved In war the bravest heart; Oh! ever the renown'd and loved Thou wert and there thou art. "Thou that my boyhood's guide The times I have sported at thy side, And there before the blessed shrine, How will that sad still face of thine MRS. HEMANS. THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. When marshall'd on the mighty plain, Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks, Once on the raging seas I rode, The storm was loud, the night was dark, The ocean yawn'd-and rudely blow'd The wind that toss'd my foundering bark. Deep horror then my vitals froze, It was the Star of Bethlehem. It was my guide, my light, my all, It bade my dark forebodings cease; Now safely moor'd-my perils o'er, The Star, the Star of Bethlehem. KIRKE WHITE. FALL OF JERUSALEM Even thus amid thy pride and luxury, Oh Earth! shall that last coming burst on thee, When all the cherub-throning clouds shall shine, When the Great Husbandman shall wave his fan, Shalt thou thy wonted dissolute course maintain, And marriage-feasts begin their jocund strain And Heaven his presence own, all rent with furnace heat. The hundred-gated cities then, The towers and temples named of men The gilded summer palaces, The earthly bowers of love and ease, Where still the bird of pleasure sings; Ask ye the destiny of them? Go gaze on fallen Jerusalem ! Yea, mightier names are in the fatal roll, 'Gainst earth and heaven God's standard is unfurl'd; The skies are shrivelled like a burning scroll, And the vast common doom ensepulchres the world. Oh! who shall then survive? Oh! who shall stand and live? In the sky's azure canopy; When for the breathing earth and sparkling sea, Heaving along the abyss profound and dark, Lord of all power, when thou art there alone Needs not the perish'd sun nor moon: And when the tribes of wickedness are strewn MILMAN. NATURE TAUGHT. I saw a star send forth its light And thus I thought of the fame of earth I saw a stream in its current clear Blooming herbs and leaves of death, Buds of sweet and noxious breath: I saw a ruin encircled in green, Ivy and cyclamen flower, Time in his ravage here had been And thus I thought, oft a smile will reign, Like man at nought repining; On a foaming wave's high crown, It seem'd to seek the very skies, Then sunk more quickly down: And thus I thought are our hopes and fears, I saw the breeze still roughly chide It moved no other leaf beside, Thus way of man lesembling; When one sharp evil chides the breast, I saw a stone on the billows sent, THE LAND THAT BORE US. Farewell to thee, thou sunny isle! The waves around our bark are dancing; Our snowy sail unfurled the while, In the noon-day beam is brightly glancing. Yet ere we sail Once more we hail The land where first the sun shone o'er us; Where'er we rove With looks of love We'll turn to thee---the land that bore us. |