Hither, in perplexed dance, Ye Woes! ye young-eyed joys! advance! Raises its fateful strings from sleep, And each domestic hearth, Haste for one solemn hour; And with a loud and yet a louder voice, Still echoes the dread name that o'er the earth Justice and Truth! They, too, have heard thy spell, Departing year! 'twas on no earthly shore Thou storied'st thy sad hours! Silence ensued, Whose locks with wreaths, whose wreaths with glories shone; From the choirèd gods advancing, The Spirit of the earth made reverence meet, HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. HAST thou a charm to stay the morning-star Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form! Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black, O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee, Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody, So sweet we know not we are listening to it, FROM "CHRISTABEL." ALAS! they had been friends in youth; Each spake words of high disdain And insult to his heart's best brother: To free the hollow heart from paining— But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, The marks of that which once hath been. Mrs Mary Tighe. Born 1773. Died 1810. AN Irish poetess, daughter of Rev. M. Blackford, County Wicklow, her chief poem is "Psyche." FROM "PSYCHE." GENTLY ascending from a silvery flood, As tranced in some bright vision, Psyche cries, For thee the palace rose at his command, That scarce the beams of heaven emit such lustre bright. Robert Southey. { Born 1774. Died 1843. ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D., was born at Bristol, on 12th August 1774. His father was a respectable linendraper in Wine Street. So early as twelve, Southey began to write verses; and during the whole period of his boyhood he seems to have been giving promise of the eminence to which he afterwards attained. In his fourteenth year he was placed at Westminster School, where he remained three years; but having, in conjunction with some of his school-companions, published a lampoon on Dr Vincent, Southey, as the chief actor, was dismissed from the school. Southey from this time till about 1811 was a revolutionist: he disliked all the established institutions of the day; in religion he became a Unitarian, and in conjunction with Coleridge he formed a new scheme of colonization, which they named a Pantisocracy, where the happy people were to have neither king nor priest to mar their comfort. These castles in the air were soon dissipated, however, and Southey applied himself to the stern realities of life. In 1794 he married a Miss Fricker. To support himself he commenced giving lectures, and afterwards he began the study of the law. In 1796 Southey published his "Joan of Arc," which he afterwards greatly altered. The study of the law went on very slowly; and at last, from bad health, he in 1800 proceeded to Portugal to recruit, where he wrote his "Thalaba," which was published in 1801. In 1804, he issued "Metrical Tales;" in 1805, "Madoc;" in 1810 "The Curse of Kehama;" and in 1814, "Roderick, the Last of the Goths." Southey, though a very voluminous writer, has never been a popular one; his admirers are chiefly among the class of students and critics, but there are some of his small pieces which have ever been the delight of general readers, such as "Lord William," "Mary the Maid of the Inn," &c. Southey's poems and his other literary work, together with a pension of L.200 a-year from Government which he received in 1807, enabled him to live in comfort, and even luxury. His Unitarian views gradually disappeared, and he became a Trinitarian from conviction. In 1813 he was appointed poet-laureate, and received the degree of LL.D. from Oxford. In 1837 his wife died, and in 1839 he married a Miss Bowles, herself an authoress. He was also offered a baronetage and a seat in Parliament, which however he declined. Southey's house at the Lakes was open to all who had any decent pretence for enjoying his hospitality; and his amiable and genial demeanour endeared him to all his friends. At his death, on 21st March 1843, Southey left above L.12,000 to his wife and family. He died at Greta Bridge, and was interred at Crossthwaite, where a marble monument has been erected to his memory. FROM "JOAN OF ARC." Lo! on the bridge he stands, the undaunted man, |