Our hammers ring with sharper dinour work will soon be sped; Our anchor soon must change his bed of fiery rich array For a hammock at the roaring bows, or an oozy couch of clay; Our anchor soon must change the lay of merry craftsmen here For the yeo-heav-o, and the heaveaway, and the sighing seamen's cheer When, weighing slow, at eve they go, far, far from love and home; And sobbing sweethearts, in a row, wail o'er the ocean foam. Of his back-browsing ocean-calves; or, haply, in a cove Shell-strown, and consecrate of old to some Undine's love, To find the long-haired mermaidens; or, hard by icy lands, To wrestle with the sea-serpent, upon cerulean sands. O broad-armed fisher of the deep! whose sports can equal thine? The dolphin weighs a thousand tons, that tugs thy cable line; And night by night 'tis thy delight, thy glory day by day, In livid and obdurate gloom, he darkens Through sable sea and breaker white thinks what joy 'twere now To go plumb-plunging down, amid the assembly of the whales, And feel the churned sea round me boil beneath their scourging tails! Then deep in tangle-woods to fight the fierce sea-unicorn, And send him foiled and bellowing back, for all his ivory horn; To leave the subtle sworder-fish of bony blade forlorn; And for the ghastly-grinning shark, to laugh his jaws to scorn; To leap down on the kraken's back, where 'mid Norwegian isles He lies, a lubber anchorage for sudden shallowed miles Till, snorting like an under-sea volcano, off he rolls; Meanwhile to swing, a-buffeting the far astonished shoals the giant game to play. But, shamer of our little sports! forgive the name I gave: A fisher's joy is to destroy-thine office is to save. O lodger in the sea-kings' halls! couldst thou but understand Whose be the white bones by thy sideor who that dripping band, Slow swaying in the heaving wave, that round about thee bend, With sounds like breakers in a dream blessing their ancient friendOh, couldst thou know what heroes glide with larger steps round thee, Thine iron side would swell with pride - thou'dst leap within the sea! MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER. 1810-1889. [BORN in London, July 17, 1810; educated at the Charterhouse School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1831; studied law but never practised; published anonymously a volume of poems (1832), and in 1838 issued the work by which he is best known, Proverbial Philosophy (second series, 1842; third, 1867). Mr. Tupper has written many other volumes of prose and verse. In 1851 and 1876 he visited the United States.] THE LORD'S PRAYER. INQUIREST thou, O man, wherewithal There is a model to thy hand; upon that do thou frame thy supplica tion. Wisdom hath measured its words, and redemption urgeth thee to use them. Call thy God thy Father, and yet not thine alone, For thou art but one of many, thy brotherhood is with all: Remember his high estate, that he dwelleth King of Heaven; So shall thy thoughts be humbled, nor love be unmixed with reverence: Be thy first petition unselfish, the honor of him who made thee, And that in the depths of thy heart his memory be shrined in holiness. Pray for that blessed time when good shall triumph over evil, And one universal temple echo the perfections of Jehovah : Bend thou to his good-will, and subserve his holy purposes, Till in thee, and those around thee, grow a little heaven upon earth: Humbly, as a grateful almsman, beg thy bread of God, Bread for thy triple estate, for thou hast a trinity of nature: Humility smootheth the way, and gratitude softeneth the heart, warm ingle side, or the wild braes amang; Our lads busk'd braw, and our lasses look'd fine, An' were clad frae the sheep that gaed An' the sun on our mountains seem'd In the days o' langsyne there were feasting and glee, Wi' pride in ilk heart, and joy in ilk ee; And the auld, 'mang the nappy, their eild seem'd to tyne, It was your stoup the nicht, and the morn 'twas mine: O! the days o' langsyne-O! the days o' langsyne. THE EXILE'S SONG. OH! why left I my hame? Why did I cross the deep? Oh! why left I the land Where my forefathers sleep? I sigh for Scotia's shore, And I gaze across the sea, The palm-tree waveth high, And, to the Indian maid, The bulbul sweetly sings. But I dinna see the broom Wi' its tassels on the lea, Nor hear the lintie's sang O' my ain countrie! Oh! here no Sabbath bell Awakes the Sabbath morn, Nor song of reapers heard Amang the yellow corn: For the tyrant's voice is here, And the wail of slaverie; But the sun of freedom shines In my ain countrie! There's a hope for every woe, And a balm for every pain; But the first joys o' our heart Come never back again, There's a track upon the deep And a path across the sea; But the weary ne'er return To their ain countrie! HENRY ALFORD. 1810-1871. LADY MARY. THOU wert fair, Lady Mary, They found thee, Lady Mary, With thy palms upon thy breast, Even as thou hadst been praying, At thine hour of rest: The cold pale moon was shining On thy cold pale cheek; And the morn of the Nativity Had just begun to break. They carved thee, Lady Mary, All of pure white stone, With thy palms upon thy breast, In the chancel all alone: And I saw thee when the winter moon Had just begun to break. But thou kneelest, Lady Mary, With thy palms upon thy breast, Among the perfect spirits, In the land of rest: From the sun that shineth there, We shall see thee, Lady Mary, A pure and happy angel In the presence of the throne; We shall see thee when the light divine Plays freshly on thy cheek, And the resurrection morning Hath just begun to break. ALFRED TENNYSON. 1809 [BORN at Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, 1809, being the third of the seven sons of Rev. George Clayton Tennyson, D.D., rector of Somersby; entered Trinity College, Cambridge, about 1827, together with his two elder brothers, Frederick and Charles. A small anonymous volume of Poems by Two Brothers (1827) contained the earliest published verses of Charles and Alfred; in 1828 the eldest brother, Frederick, gained the medal for a Greek poem, and in 1829 Alfred obtained the Chancellor's medal for an English poem (Timbuctoo) of 250 lines. One of his chief competitors for this prize was his most intimate college friend, Arthur H. Hallam (d. 1833), to whose memory, in later years, the poem In Memoriam was dedicated. In 1830 he published a small volume of Poems Chiefly Lyrical; in 1832 his third volume of poems appeared, containing the Lady of Shalott, Enone, The May Queen, and The Lotos Eaters. In 1842 a new edition of his poems, in two volumes, was issued, which contained Morte d'Arthur, Locksley Hall, and other noted pieces. The Princess was given to the public in 1847, In Memoriam in 1850. In 1851 he succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate. Maud and other poems appeared in 1855. The Idyls of the King was issued in 1858, and has been generally accepted as his greatest poetical effort. The Holy Grail and other poems, published in 1869, completed the Arthurian legend. His other principal works include Enoch Arden (1864), Gareth and Lynette (1872), Queen Mary, a drama (1875), Harold (1877). He has lived for the most part a retired life in the Isle of Wight, not much caring to cultivate society, but greatly beloved by his intimate friends. Wordsworth pronounced him to be" decidedly the first of our living poets," an opinion which has been accepted by critics and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. In December, 1883, Mr. Tennyson was appointed a Baron of the United Kingdom.] MARIANA. "Mariana in the moated grange." Measure for Measure. WITH blackest moss the flower-plots Were thickly crusted, one and all: The rusted nails fell from the knots That held the peach to the gardenwall. The broken sheds look'd sad and Unlifted was the clinking latch: Upon the lonely moated grange. She only said, "My life is dreary, Her tears fell with the dews at even; She could not look on the sweet heaven, When thickest dark did trance the She drew her casement-curtain by, |