Under the sod and the dew, So with an equal splendor On the blossoms blooming for all;- Waiting the judgment day;— So, when the summer calleth, Sadly, but not with upbraiding, Under the sod and the dew, No more shall the war-cry sever, When they laurel the graves of our dead! F. M. Finch. THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS. The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, and sear. Heaped in the hollows of the grove the withered leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust and to the rabbit's tread. The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprung and stood In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer's glow; But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade, and glen. And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come, To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home; When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still, And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, The south-wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore, And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more. And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died, The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side. In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf, And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief; Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours, So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers. William Cullen Bryant. CARCASSONNE. How old I am! I'm eighty year! A dream I had when life was new- I have not seen fair Carcassonne! One sees it dimly from the height Our Vicar's right; he preaches loud, He says: "O, guard the weakest part, They say it is as gay all time, Alas! I saw not Carcassonne! My God and Father! pardon me, One sees some hope more high than he, To which his heart ascends. My wife, my son have seen Narbonne, Thus sighed a peasant, bent with age, I said, "My friend, come go with me, Who has not known a Carcassonne? M. E. W. Sherwood. FUNERAL HYMN. How still and peaceful is the grave, The appointed house, by Heaven's decree, The wicked there from troubling cease,- |