Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

I praise Him, and with faith that inly Peace, and this cot, and thee, heartfeels;

honored Maid!

ROBERT TANNAHILL.

1774-1810.

[A LYRICAL poet whose songs rival all but the best of Burns in popularity. Born at Paisley, June 3, 1774. His education was limited, but he was a diligent student and reader. He followed the trade of a weaver in his native town till his twenty-sixth year, when he removed to Lancashire, where he remained for two years, until the declining state of his father's health induced him to return. In 1807 he published a volume of poems and songs, the first edition of which sold in a few weeks, and became immensely popular with all classes of his countrymen. He afterwards fell into a state of morbid despondency, aggravated by bodily weakness, which at length resulted in mental derangement, and he committed suicide by drowning, May 17, 1810.]

THE BRAES O BALQUHITHER.

LET us go, lassie, go,

To the braes o' Balquhither,

Where the blae-berries grow

'Mang the bonnie Highland heather;
Where the deer and the roe,
Lightly bounding together,
Sport the lang summer day
On the braes o' Balquhither.

I will twine thee a bower

By the clear siller fountain,
And I'll cover it o'er

Wi' the flowers of the mountain;
I will range through the wilds,
And the deep glens sae drearie,
And return wi' the spoils

To the bower o' my dearie.

When the rude wintry win'

Idly raves round our dwelling, And the roar of the linn

On the night breeze is swelling,
So merrily we'll sing,

As the storm rattles o'er us,
Till the dear shieling ring
Wi' the light lilting chorus.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

[THE daughter of William Blatchford of the county of Wicklow, Ireland. Her history is but little known to the public. Mrs. Tighe is chiefly known by her poem of Psyche in six cantos, founded on the classic fable of Apuleius, of the lives of Cupid and Psyche, or the allegory of Love and the Soul. Some of her minor pieces are also scarcely exceeded for beauty and pathos by anything of the kind in the language.]

[blocks in formation]

With hand too rashly daring to disclose The sacred veil which hung mysterious o'er her woes.

Twice, as with agitated step she went, The lamp expiring shone with doubtful gleam,

As though it warn'd her from her rash intent:

And twice she paused, and on its trembling beam

Gazed with suspended breath, while voices seem

With murmuring sound along the roof to sigh;

As one just waking from a troublous dream,

With palpitating heart and straining eye, Still fix'd with fear remains, still thinks the danger nigh.

Oh, daring Muse! wilt thou indeed essay

To paint the wonders which that lamp could show?

And canst thou hope in living words to

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The heart to touch), persuasion to infuse,

Still hangs a rosy charm that never vainly sues.

The friendly curtain of indulgent sleep Disclosed not yet his eyes' resistless sway, But from their silky veil there seem'd to peep

Some brilliant glances with a softened ray,

Which o'er his features exquisitely play, And all his polish'd limbs suffuse with light.

Thus through some narrow space the azure day,

Sudden its cheerful rays diffusing bright, Wide darts its lucid beams, to gild the brow of night.

His fatal arrows and celestial bow Beside the couch were negligently thrown,

Nor needs the god his dazzling arms to show

His glorious birth; such beauty round him shone

As sure could spring from Beauty's self alone;

The bloom which glow'd o'er all of soft desire

Could well proclaim him Beauty's cher ish'd son:

And Beauty's self will oft those charms admire,

And steal his witching smile, his glance's living fire.

[blocks in formation]

So Faith shall seek the lowly dust Where humble Sorrow loves to lie, And bid her thus her hopes intrust, And watch with patient, cheerful eye;

And bear the long, cold wintry night, And bear her own degraded doom; And wait till Heaven's reviving light, Eternal spring! shall burst the gloom.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

1774-1843.

[ROBERT SOUTHEY was born at Bristol on Aug. 12, 1774. He was educated at Westminster School and at Balliol College, Oxford; and after some years of wandering and unsettlement he went to live, in 1803, at Greta Hall, near Keswick, which remained his home till his death in 1843. In 1813 he was made poet laureate. Besides his countless prose works, his volumes of verse were very numerous; the chief of them are:- Poems by Robert Lovell and Robert Southey, of Balliol College, Oxford, 2 vols., 1795-9; Joan of Arc, 1796; Poems, 1797; Thalaba the Destroyer, 1801; Madoc, 1805; Metrical Tales and other Poems, 1805; The Curse of Kehama, 1810; Roderick, the last of the Goths, 1814; A Vision of Judgment, 1821.]

FROM "RODERICK."

[The King is in disguise on his final mission to exterminate the Moors.]

ON foot they came, Chieftains and men alike; the Oaken Cross,

Triumphant borne on high, precedes their march,

And broad and bright the argent banner shone.

Roderick, who dealing death from side to side,

Had through the Moorish army now made way,

Beheld it flash, and judging well what aid

Approach'd, with sudden impulse that way rode,

To tell of what had pass'd, .

the strife

[ocr errors]

. lest in

[blocks in formation]

Siverian, quoth Pelayo, if mine eyes Deceive me not, yon horse, whose reeking sides

Are red with slaughter, is the same on whom

The Apostate Orpas in his vauntery Wont to parade the streets of Cordoba. But thou shouldst know him best; regard him well:

Is't not Orelio?

Either it is he,

The old man replied, or one so like to him,

Whom all thought matchless, that similitude

Would be the greater wonder. But behold,

What man is he who in that disarray Doth with such power and majesty bestride

The noble steed, as if he felt himself In his own proper seat? Look how he leans

To cherish him; and how the gallant

horse

Curves up his stately neck, and bends his head,

As if again to court that gentle touch. And answer to the voice which praises

him.

« ZurückWeiter »