He stoop'd and kiss'd the frozen cheek,
And the hand of lifeless clay,

'Till bursting words—yet all too weak-
Gave his soul's passion way.

"Oh, Father! it is vain
This late remorse and deep!
Speak to me, Father! once again !—
I weep behold, I weep!
Alas! my guilty pride and ire!
Were but this work undone,

I would give England's crown, my Sire!
To hear thee bless thy son.

"Speak to my mighty grief;

Ere now the dust hath stirr'd!

Hear me but hear me !-Father, Chief,
My King! I must be heard!–
Hush'd, hush'd !-how is it that I call,

And that thou answerest not?
When was it thus ?-Woe, woe, for all
The love my soul forgot!

66

Thy silver hairs I see

So still, so sadly bright!

And, Father, Father! but for me,
They had not been so white!

I bore thee down, high heart! at last
No longer could'st thou strive,-
Oh! for one moment of the past,
To kneel and say 'Forgive!'

"Thou wert the noblest King,
On royal throne e'er seen;
And thou didst wear in knightly ring,

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
Did'st take fond joy to be!-

The times I have sported at thy side,
And climb'd thy parent knee !

And there before the blessed shrine,
My Sire, I see thee lie,-

How will that sad still face of thine
Look on me till I die!"

MRS. HEMANS.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

When marshall'd on the mighty plain,
The glitt'ring host bestud the sky;
One star alone, of all the train,

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.

Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks,
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone the Saviour speaks,
It is the Star of Bethlehem.

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,
Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem;
When suddenly a star arose,

It was the Star of Bethlehem.

It was my guide, my light, my all,

It bade my dark forebodings cease;
And through the storm and danger's thrall,
It lead me to the port of peace.

Now safely moor'd-my perils o'er,
I'll sing, first in night's diadem,
For ever and for evermore,

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,
That secret coming of the Son of Man.

When all the cherub-throning clouds shall shine,
Irradiate with his bright advancing sign,

When the Great Husbandman shall wave his fan,
Sweeping like chaff, thy wealth and pomp away :
Still to the noontide of that nightless day,

Shalt thou thy wonted dissolute course maintain,
Along the busy mart and crowded street,
The buyer and the seller still shall meet,

And marriage-feasts begin their jocund strain
Still to the pouring out the Cup of Woe;
Till Earth a drunkard reeling to and fro,
And mountains molten by his burning feet,

And Heaven his presence own, all rent with furnace heat.

The hundred-gated cities then,

The towers and temples named of men
Eternal, and the thrones of Kings;

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?
When all that hath been, is no more:
When for the round earth hung in air,
With all its constellations fair

In the sky's azure canopy;

When for the breathing earth and sparkling sea,
Is but a fiery deluge without shore,

Heaving along the abyss profound and dark,
A fiery deluge, and without an ark.

Lord of all power, when thou art there alone
On thy eternal fiery-wheeled throne,
That in its high meridian noon

Needs not the perish'd sun nor moon:
When thou art there in thy presiding state,
Wide-sceptred Monarch o'er the realm of doom :
When from the sea-depths, from Earth's darkest womb,
The dead of all the ages round thee wait:

And when the tribes of wickedness are strewn
Like forest leaves in the autumn of thine ire :
Faithful and true! thou wilt save thine own!
The saints shall dwell within th' unharming fire,
Each white robe spotless, blooming every palm.
Even safe as we, by this still fountain's side,
So shall the Church, thy bright and mystic bride,
Sit on the stormy gulf a halcyon bird of calm.
Yes 'mid yon angry and destroying signs,
O'er us the rainbow of thy mercy shines,
We hail, we bless the covenant of its beam,
Almighty to avenge, Almightiest to redeem !

MILMAN.

NATURE TAUGHT.

I saw a star send forth its light
From a richly orb-deck'd sky,
It vanished in the sombre night
In splendid sublimity :

And thus I thought of the fame of earth
Which fades ere scarce it knows its birth.

I saw a stream in its current clear

Blooming herbs and leaves of death,
And it swept along its gay career

Buds of sweet and noxious breath:
And thus I thought of our passions' sway
Bearing our virtues with vices away.

I saw a ruin encircled in green,

Ivy and cyclamen flower,

Time in his ravage here had been
Exerting his awful
power:

And thus I thought, oft a smile will reign,
In the face of grief, in the midst of pain.
I heard the winds' continued moan
When the sun was gaily shining
It made a murmur of its own

Like man at nought repining;
And thus I thought is the way of those
Discontented minds who make their woes!
Then ocean's weed I saw uprise

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,
Born in sunshine---lost in tears.

I saw the breeze still roughly chide
The aspen leaf in its trembling;

It moved no other leaf beside,

Thus way of man lesembling;

When one sharp evil chides the breast,
Then sorrow adds another guest.

I saw a stone on the billows sent,
Sparkling sun-gems showing;
It scarcely on ocean's bosom went
Ere to its depths was going;
Thus teaching in its short career
That life is short---that death is near.

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.