There groups of merry children played,
There youths and maidens dreaming strayed;
O precious hours! O golden prime,
And affluence of love and time!
Even as a miser counts his gold,
Those hours the ancient timepiece told,-

66

'For ever-never! Never-for ever!"

From that chamber, clothed in white,
The bride came forth on her wedding night
There, in that silent room below,
The dead lay in his shroud of snow;
And in the hush that followed the prayer,
Was heard the old clock on the stair,-
66 For ever-never! Never-for ever!"
All are scattered now and fled,
Some are married, some are dead;
And when I ask with throbs of pain,
"Ah! when shall they all meet again?
As in the days long since gone by,
The ancient timepiece makes reply,-
"For ever-never! Never-for ever!"

Never here, for ever there,

Where all parting, pain, and care,

And death, and time shall disappear,

For ever there, but never here!

The horologe of Eternity

Sayeth this incessantly,

"For ever-never! Never-for ever!

THE PAUPER'S DEATH-BED.

This poem-as well as the following one-is by CAROLINE BOWLES SOUTHEY, the daughter of the Rev. W. L. Bowles, himself a poet, and the second wife, for a few years, of the poet Southey. Both poems are in a noble style, full of strong sympathy and religious feeling. Both should be read very slowly and very distinctly.

TREAD Softly! bow the head

In reverent silence bow!

No passing bell doth toll;

Yet an immortal soul

Is passing now.

Stranger, however great,

With lowly reverence bow!

CAUTIONS: a. The emphasis is on no, and not on passing. b. A deep falling inflection marks this thou. c. The pause after burst enables the reader to escape the verse-accent upon are.

MEANING: 1. Soulless clod, piece of clay from which the soul has fled.

CAUTION: a. The emphasis is on short, and not on grows.

This song

A GATHERING SONG.

is supposed to be sung to the bagpipe (or pibroch), to summon the clan for war. It has an eager and impetuous rhythm; and the last verse gives the result of the summons.

PIBROCH of Donuil Dhu, pibroch of Donuil,

1

Wake thy wild voice anew, summon Clan-Conuil!
Come away, come away-hark to the summons!
Come in your war array, gentles and commons!1
Come from deep glen and from mountain so rocky;
The war-pipe and pennon are at Inverlochy.2
Come every hill-plaid, and true heart that wears one;
Come every steel blade, and strong hand that bears one.
Leave untended the herd, the flock without shelter;
Leave the corpse uninterred,3 the bride at the altar;
Leave the deer, leave the steer, leave nets and barges :
Come with your fighting gear, broadswords and targes.
when forests are rended;
when navies are stranded!
faster and faster-

Come as the winds come
Come as the waves come
Faster come,
Chief, vassal, page and groom, tenant and master!

faster come,

Fast they come, fast they come-see how they gather
Wide waves the eagle plume blended with heather.

THE PAUPER'S DRIVE.

Cast your plaids, draw your blades, forward each man set!
Pibroch of Donuil Dhu knell for the onset !

179

WALTER SCOTT.

CAUTION: This poem should be read quickly, but with the utmost clearness of articulation. The speed and eagerness go on increasing with each verse.

MEANINGS: 1. Gentles and commons, chiefs and retainers. 2. Inverlochy, this was the place appointed for the clan to muster. 3. Uninterred, unburied. 4. Steer, bullock. 5. Targes, round shields made of bull-hide.

THE PAUPER'S DRIVE.

The idea of this poem is that the pauper has at last become a "gentleman," and drives out in his own carriage-but only after death. He makes a noise in the world-but only when he cannot enjoy it himseif. The gentle and pathetic conclusion of the poem recalls the reader to the true key-note: even the pauper as well as others, is one of God's children.

THERE's a grim one-horse hearse' in a jolly round trot.
To the churchyard a pauper is going, I wot;2
The road it is rough, and the hearse has no springs;
And hark to the dirge3 which the mad driver sings:
Rattle his bones over the stones!

He's only a pauper, whom nobody owns!

there are

Oh, where are the mourners ? Alas!
He has left not a gap in the world now he's gone-
Not a tear in the eye of child, woman, or man;
To the grave with his carcase as fast as you can.

nòne

What a jolting, and creaking, and splashing, and din!
The whip how it cracks! and the wheels how they spin!
How the dirt, right and left, o'er the hedges is hurled!-
The pauper at length makes a noise in the world!

Poor pauper defunct! he has made some approach
To gentility now that he's stretched in a coach!
He's taking a drive in his carriage at last:
But it will not be long if he goes on so fast.

You bumpkins! who stare at your brother conveyed-
Behold what respect to a cloddy is paid!

And be joyful to think, when by death you're laid low,
You've a chance to the grave like a gemman to go!

But a truce to this strain;5 for my soul it is sad,
To think that a heart in humanity clad
Should make, like the brutes, such a desolate end,
And depart from the light without leaving a friend!

Bear soft his bones
Though a pauper, he's one

over the stones!

whom his Maker yet owns. NOEL.

CAUTIONS: The chief point to attend to in reading this poem is, not to allow the verse to induce a jerky style; and this will be best avoided by paying the utmost attention to the sense and thought alone. a. The emphasis is on no. b. This but introduces a total change, from the almost wicked irony of the previous lines, to human pity and sympathy. c. Read these lines very slowly; and the last two with the greatest slowness and solemnity.

MEANINGS: 1. Hearse, a coach in which coffins are carried. 2. Wot, know. 3. Dirge, funeral song. 4. Defunct, dead. 5. A truce to this strain, enough of such words as these.

FLOWERS.

SPAKE full well in language quaint and olden,
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,
When he called the flowers so blue and golden,
Stars that in earth's firmament1 do shine.
Wondrous truths, and manifold2 as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above;
But not less in the bright flowerets under us
Stands the revelation of His love.

Bright and glorious is that revelation,

Writ all over this great world of ours-
Making evident our own creation,

In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.
Everywhere about us are they glowing:
Some like stars to tell us spring is born;
Others, their blue eyes with tears o'erflowing,
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn.

LONGFELLOW.

CAUTIONS: a. No accent on spake, but one on each of the words full and well. b. Avoid the verse accent on by. c. Avoid the verse-accent on in, and utter slowly the words those stars above. d. Not less to be said slowly and weightily. e. Emphasis on all.

MEANINGS: 1. Firmament, sky. 2. Manifold, of many kinds.

WAR.

These lines are a prayer for the cessation of war, and a wish that the energy and the wealth contributed to war were diverted to the arts and sciences.

WERE half the power that fills the earth with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,

There were no need, of arsenals nor forts.