Slike strani
PDF
ePub

5. On slumbrous wings the vulture held his flight;

The dove scarce heard his sighing mate's comAnd like a star slow drowning in the light, [plaint; The village church-vane seemed to pale and faint.

6. The sentinel-cock upon the hill-side crew

Crew thrice, and all was stiller than before,—
Silent till some replying warder blew

His alien horn, and then was heard no more.

7. Where erst the jay, within the elm's tall crest, Made garrulous trouble round her unfledged young,

And where the oriole hung her swaying nest,

By every light wind like a censer swung:

8. Where sang the noisy masons of the eaves, The busy swallows, circling ever near, Foreboding, as the rustic mind believes,

An early harvest and a plenteous year;—

9. Where every bird which charmed the vernal feast, Shook the sweet slumber from its wings at morn, To warn the reaper of the rosy east,

[ocr errors]

All now was songless, empty, and forlorn.

10. Alone from out the stubble piped the quail,

And croaked the crow through all the dreamy Alone the pheasant, drumming in the vale, [gloom; Made echo to the distant cottage loom.

11. There was no bud, no bloom upon the bowers;

The spiders wove their thin shrouds night by The thistle-down, the only ghost of flowers, [night; Sailed slowly by, passed noiseless out of sight.

12. Amid all this, in this most cheerless air,

And where the woodbine shed upon the porch
Its crimson leaves, as if the Year stood there
Firing the floor with his inverted torch;-

13. Amid all this, the centre of the scene,

The white-haired matron, with monotonous tread, Plied the swift wheel, and with her joyless mien, Sat like a Fate, and watched the flying thread.

14. She had known Sorrow, he had walked with her,

Oft supped and broke the bitter ashen crust;
And in the dead leaves still she heard the stir
Of his black mantle trailing in the dust.

15. While yet her cheek was bright with summer bloom,
Her country summoned, and she gave her all;
And twice War bowed to her his sable plume-
Regave the swords to rust upon her wall.

16. Regave the swords-but not the hand that drew
And struck for Liberty its dying blow,
Nor him who, to his sire and country true,
Fell 'mid the ranks of the invading foe.

17. Long, but not loud, the droning wheel went on, Like the low murmur of a hive at noon;

Long, but not loud, the memory of the gone

Breathed through her lips a sad and tremulous tune.

18. At last the thread was snapped: her head was bowed; Life dropped the distaff through his hands sereneAnd loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud, While Death and Winter closed the autumn scene.

T. B. READ.

[blocks in formation]

HIS is the ship of pearl which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,

[hair.

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their shining

2. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed-

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

3. Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year's dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last found home, and knew the old

no more.

4. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn!
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice
that sings,-

5. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low vaulted past:

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

O. W. HOLMES.

NOTE. THE SHIP OF PEARL is a poetic appellation for the chambered ' Nautilus, a kind of shell-fish, furnished with a membrane which serves it as a sail. The shell is a spiral, chambered shell, that is, divided into several cavities by partitions.

A MOTTO.

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

LONGFELLOW.

S

LESSON LXXIX.

CURFEW.

OLEMNLY, mournfully, doling its dole, The Curfew Bell is beginning to toll. Cover the embers, and put out the light;

Toil comes with the morning and rest with the night.

2. Dark grow the windows, and quenched is the fire;
Sound fades into silence,—all footsteps retire.

No voice in the chambers, no sound in the hall!
Sleep and oblivion reign over all!

3. The book is completed, and closed, like the day:
And the hand that has written it lays it away.
Dim grow its fancies, forgotten they lie;
Like coals in the ashes, they darken and die.

4. Song sinks into silence, the story is told;

The windows are darkened, the hearth-stone is cold. Darker and darker the black shadows fall;

Sleep and oblivion reign over all.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

NOTE.-Curfew, the ringing of a bell at nightfall, originally designed as a signal to the inhabitants to cover fires, extinguish lights, and retire to rest: the practice was instituted by William the Conqueror, king of England.

« PrejšnjaNaprej »