We lived, ere yet this robe of flesh we wore. Thou wert a spirit, to this nether sphere Sentenced for some more venial crime to grieve; Did'st moan, then spring to meet Heaven's quick reprieve, While we wept idly o'er thy little bier! SONNET. TO A FRIEND WHO ASKED, HOW I FELT WHEN THE NURSE FIRST PRESENTED MY INFANT TO ME. C HARLES! my slow heart was only sad, when I scanned that face of feeble infancy! [first For dimly on my thoughtful spirit burst All I had been, and all my child might be! But when I saw it on its mother's arm, And hanging at her bosom (she the while Bent o'er its features with a tearful smile) Then I was thrilled and melted, and most warm Impressed a father's kiss: and all beguiled Of dark remembrance and presageful fear, THE VIRGIN'S CRADLE-HYMN. COPIED FROM A PRINT OF THE VIRGIN, IN A ROMAN CATHOLIC VILLAGE IN GERMANY. D ORMI, Jesu! Mater ridet Quæ tam dulcem somnum videt, Si non dormis, Mater plorat, Inter fila cantans orat, Blande, veni, somnule. ENGLISH. LEEP, sweet babe! my cares beguiling; SLE Mother sits beside thee smiling; Sleep, my darling, tenderly! If thou sleep not, mother mourneth, EPITAPH ON AN INFANT. TS balmy lips the infant blest Relaxing from its mother's breast, And such my infant's latest sigh! ST MELANCHOLY. A FRAGMENT. TRETCHED on a mouldered Abbey's broadest wall, Where ruining ivies propped the ruins steepHer folded arms wrapping her tattered pall, Had Melancholy mused herself to sleep. The fern was pressed beneath her hair, The dark green adder's tongue was there; And still as past the flagging sea-gale weak, The long lank leaf bowed fluttering o'er her cheek. That pallid cheek was flushed: her eager look Beamed eloquent in slumber! Inly wrought, Imperfect sounds her moving lips forsook, And her bent forehead worked with troubled Strange was the dream [thought. M TELL'S BIRTH-PLACE. IMITATED FROM STOLBERG. I. ARK this holy chapel well! The birth-place, this, of William Tell. Here, where stands God's altar dread, II. Here, first, an infant to her breast, Him his loving mother prest; And kissed the babe, and blessed the day, III. “Vouchsafe him health, O God! and give The child thy servant still to live!" But God had destined to do more Through him, than through an armed power. IV. God gave him reverence of laws, Yet stirring blood in Freedom's cause- The eye of the hawk, and the fire therein ! V. To Nature and to Holy Writ Alone did God the boy commit : Where flashed and roared the torrent, oft VI. grace: The straining oar and chamois chase VII. He knew not that his chosen hand, A CHRISTMAS CAROL. TH I. HE shepherds went their hasty way, Where the Virgin-Mother lay: And now they checked their eager tread, II. They told her how a glorious light, Blest Mother! thou shalt sing the song The Heavens sang :-Messiah's birth! 111. She listened to the tale divine, And closer still the Babe she prest; And while she cried, the Babe is mine! The milk rushed faster to her breast: Joy rose within her, like a summer's morn; IV. Thou Mother of the Prince of Peace, |