So, from the way in which he was train'd up, Poor muckworm! through his three-score years and ten; If that which served him for a soul were still Within its husk, 'twould still be dirt to dirt. FROM "MADOC" IN WALES.-BOOK V. THE LAND AND OCEAN SCENERY OF AMERICA. Thy summer woods Are lovely, O my mother Isle! the birch But there, what forms Of beauty clothed the inlands and the shore! All these in stateliest growth, and mixt with these The lofty palm, that with its nuts supplied Beverage and food; they edg'd the shore, and crown'd The far off highland summits, their straight stems Their tresses nodding like a crested helm, The plumage of the grove. Will ye believe The wonders of the ocean? how its shoals Sprung from the wave, like flashing light, . . took wing, And, twinkling with a silver glitterance, Flew through the air and sunshine? Yet were these To sight less wond'rous than the tribe who swam, Following, like fowlers with uplifted eye, Their falling quarry: . . language cannot paint In all its rich variety of shades, Suffused with glowing gold. Its wonders: What shall I say? Came down : Heaven, too, had there from a deep black heavy cloud, an arm, a shoot.. a trunk The waters, Ocean smoked beneath its touch, Wafted by airs so exquisitely mild, With purple islanded the dark-blue deep; By night the quiet billows heaved and glanced Under the moon, . . that heavenly moon! so bright, That many a midnight have I paced the deck, Forgetful of the hours of due repose; Yea, till the sun in his full majesty Went forth, like God beholding his own works. FROM "THALABA THE DESTROYER." BOOK I. STANZA I. NIGHT IN THE DESERT. How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; In full orb'd glory yonder moon divine The desert-circle spreads, Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. None hath seen its secret fountain; From rock to rock, with shivering force rebounding, Wide spreads the snowy foam, the sparkling spray And in the watery air Suspends her halo-crowns of silver light. LOVE.-BOOK X. They sin who tell us Love can die. In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, Its holy flame for ever burneth; Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest: 66 FROM RODERIC, THE LAST OF THE GOTHS." LANDING OF THE MOORISH ARMY IN SPAIN.1 A countless multitude they came; Syrian, Moor, Saracen,2 Greek renegade, Persian, and Copt, and Tatar, in one bond Of erring faith conjoined, strong in the youth In whom all turbulent vices were let loose; All bloody, all abominable things. 1 Count Julian, a Spanish noble, for an injury done him by the Gothic king Roderic, invited the Moors of the Caliphate from Africa to avenge him. The Gothic king was defeated at the fatal battle of Xeres in 713, and a great part of the country subjected for about eight centuries to the Mohammedan dominion. The last Moorish kingdom, Grenada, fell before the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The incidents in Southey's poem turn on the tradition that the defeated Roderic survived the engagement. 2 The Arab Mohammedans; an epithet of the Arabians understood to imply plunderers. The Copts have been alleged to be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Thou, Calpe, sawest their coming: ancient Rock Thou sawest the dark-blue waters flash before White turbans, glittering armour, shields engrailed JOHN LEYDEN, M. D. (1775-1811.) LITERATURE has seldom to mourn more truly over genius early blighted by death than in the case of John Leyden. He was the son of humble parents, and born at Denholm, on the banks of the Teviot in Roxburghshire. His powerful talents, while he was yet young, amassed a singular amount of classical and oriental literature. He was destined for the church, but suddenly exchanged his profession for that of medicine, on a prospect of obtaining an appointment in the East. He proceeded to India, and acted in different capacities in various quarters of that country for several years, hiving up daily stores of oriental learning. He died of fever during the English expedition against Java in 1811. "A distant and a deadly shore Holds Leyden's cold remains."-Scott, "Lord of the Isles." Leyden's principal poem is "Scenes of Infancy;" he left also a number of ballads, sonnets,. & c., and translations from various European and oriental languages. He is an elegant and pleasing writer. 1 Calpe (Gibraltar Rock) is said to be the same word, with a guttural aspiration, as Abyla or Alyba (Cape Serra), the Carthaginian name of the opposite African promontory, which itself is a Punic appellative for any high mountain, and contains the root of Alp.-Anthon's Lempriere. Gibraltar, from Arab. Djibel, a hill, and Tarik, the name of the invading Moorish general, who landed there in 710.-See Gibbon, ch. li. The mythological tale of the rending of the capes by Hercules originated the name Pillars of Hercules. The classics do not seem to contain any associations of Kronos or Briareus with Calpe: Southey refers to the "Historia de Gibraltar, by Don Ignacio Lopez de Ayala." 2 Verses of the Koran were inscribed on the Mohammedan standards. His knowledge of ancient traditions rendered him a valuable contributor to Scott's Border Minstrelsy. SCOTTISH MUSIC, AN ODE, TO IANTHE.1 Again, sweet siren, breathe again Such was the song that soothed to rest, The Celtic warrior's parted shade; When shipwrecked mariners are laid. Ah! sure as Hindu legends tell,3 Immur'd in mortal forms to mourn. Or if, as ancient sages ween, Can mingle with the mortal throng, I hear, I hear, with awful dread, That murmurs round the mermaid's grave, Sweet sounds! that oft have sooth'd to rest And charm'd away mine infant tears: That in the wild the traveller hears. 1 Tanthe (Gr. ion-anthos), violet flower. 2 The Flathinnis, or Celtic paradise; innis (inch) is island. 3 The effect of music is explained by the Hindús as recalling to our memory the airs of paradise, heard in a state of pre-existence." Compare Wordsworth's Ode, &c., see p. 371. |