Yet hark, how through the peopled air
The busy murmur glows!1
The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honeyed2 spring,
And float amid the liquid noon:
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some show their gaily-gilded trim,
Quick-glancing to the sun.

To Contemplation's3 sober eye,
Such is the race of man;
And they that creep and they that fly
Shall end where they began.
Alike the busy and the gay

But flutter through life's little day,
In fortune's varying colours drest;
Brushed by the hand of rough mischance,
Or chilled by age, their airy dance
They leave, in dust to rest.

Methinks I hear in accents low,
The sportive kind+ reply,

Poor moralist! and what art thou?
A solitary fly!

Thy joys no glittering female meets,
No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets,
No painted plumage to display;
On hasty wings thy youth is flown;

1 Glows-A daring, not to say audacious, word;-a murmur glows! Honeyed-Dr. Johnson has censured the use of adjectives of this class, that look like participles, but are really derived from nouns. Such forms are however congenial to the spirit of our language; thus we find "slippered pantaloon," "tapestried hall," "spiced cup," "daisied bank," &c.

3 To Contemplation's, &c.-" This stanza furnishes the most curious specimen of a continued metaphor-the happiest intermixture of the simile and the subject--that the whole compass of poetry, ancient and modern, can produce:" Gilbert Wakefield.

4 Sportive kind-i.e. the sportive insects; an awkward expression.

5 Glittering female-In allusion, perhaps, to the glow-worm, the female of which is a wingless insect, and emits its light, it is thought, to attract the winged male.

6 Painted-Phædrus has "pictæ plume"-painted feathers.

Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone-
We frolic while 'tis May.

Gray.

TO THE BUTTERFLY.2

CHILD of the sun! pursue thy rapturous flight,
Mingling with her thou lovest in fields of light,
And where the flowers of paradise unfold,
Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold:
There shall thy wings, rich as an evening sky,3
Expand and shut with silent ecstacy:

Yet wert thou once a worm-a thing that crept
On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb and slept.
And such is man-soon from his cell of clay
To burst a seraph in the blaze of day.

Rogers.

THE CRUSADE.1

BOUND for holy Palestine,

Nimbly we brushed the level brine,
All in azure steel arrayed;

O'er the waves5 our banners played

1 Thy sun is set, thy spring, &c.—It is a very common metaphor to represent life as a day or a year. Thus we speak of the dawn, morning, noon, sunset, (as here,) evening, and night, of life; as well as of its spring, (as here,) summer, autumn, and winter.

This ode must, notwithstanding its many beauties, be regarded as unfinished, inasmuch as it omits all consideration of those "glorious hopes," which raise man beyond the reach of any comparison with the brutes that perish. How different the close of the next piece!

The thought and diction of these lines are equally rich and beautiful. They are alive with a light that warms while it illumines.

3 Rich as an evening sky-happily descriptive-an expression far transcending the "painted plumage" of Gray. See preceding page.

4 "The Crusade,'" says Campbell, "has a genuine air of martial and minstrel enthusiasm."

5 Waves, billows-A wave, from the Anglo-Saxon wag, which is connected with weag-an, to weigh or balance, "may be defined." says Taylor, "a ridge of water in a state of oscillation." A billow, from the Anglo-Saxon bilig, the belly, is a wave that swells or bulges out more than others.

And made the dancing billows glow;
High upon the trophied1 prow,
Many a warrior-minstrel swung
His sounding harp, and boldly sung.

"Syrian virgins, wail and weep,
English Richard ploughs the deep!
Tremble, watchmen, as ye spy,

From distant towers, with anxious eye,
The radiant range of shield and lance
Down Damascus' hills advance;
From Zion's turrets as afar

Ye ken2 the march of Europe's war!3
Saladin, thou paynim+ king,

From Albion's isle revenge we bring
On Acco's spiry citadel,

Though to the gale thy banners swell,
Pictured with the silver moon,6
England shall end thy glory soon!
In vain to break our firm array,
Thy brazen drums' hoarse discord bray;
Those sounds our rising fury fan;
English Richard in the van,

On to victory we go,

A vaunting infidel the foe."

Blondel led the tuneful band,

And swept the wire with glowing hand.
Cyprus, from her rocky mound,

And Crete, with piny verdure crowned,
Far along the smilings main

Echoed the prophetic strain.

Trophied-adorned with trophies or memorials of victory.

2 Ken-from the Anglo-Saxon cean-an, to know by the senses, especially, sight; to know generally.

3 War-put here for "forces," as in Milton's "Paradise Lost," xii, 213:"On their embattled ranks the waves return,

And overwhelm their war."

↑ Paynim-from the French payen, pagan. An epithet not strictly applicable to Saladin.

5 Acco-the ancient Ptolemais and the modern Acre.

6 Silver moon-the Turkish crescent.

7 Brazen drums-To increase the din, Saladin had brass kettle-drums beaten during one of the battles.

8 Smiling-i. e. sparkling in the sun. Eschylus, in the "Prometheus Vinetus," beautifully refers to "the ocean-waves' unnumbered smiles."

Soon we kissed the sacred earth

That gave the suffering Saviour birth:
Then with ardour fresh endued
Thus the solemn song renewed.

"Lo, the toilsome voyage past,
Heaven's favoured hills appear at last!
Object of our holyl vow,

We tread the Syrian valleys now.
From Carmel's almond-shielded steep
We feel the cheering fragrance creep:
O'er Engaddi's shrubs of balm
Waves the date-empurpled3 palm.
See Lebanon's aspiring head
Wide his immortal umbrage+ spread!
"Hail Calvary, thou mountain5 hoar,
Where sin's dread load the Saviour bore!
Ye trampled tombs, ye fanes forlorn,
Ye stones, by tears of pilgrims worn;
Your ravished honours to restore,
Fearless we climb the hostile shore.
And thou, the sepulchre of God! 6
By mocking pagans rudely trod,
Bereft of every awful rite,

And quenched thy lamps that beamed so bright;
For thee, from Britain's distant coast,

Lo, Richard leads his faithful host!

Aloft in his heroic hand,

Blazing like the beacon's brand,

Holy-a very much abused word when employed with reference to the Crusades generally.

2 Engaddi-an ancient city which stood on the western coast of the Dead Sea. We learn from Josephus that it was once famous for palm-trees and balsams, or balm-shrubs, but "at present," says Dr. Robinson, who recently visited the spot, "not a palm-tree exists there."

3 Date-empurpled-adorned with dates. A very artificial epithet. See note 2,p.71. Immortal umbrage-in allusion to the remarkable longevity of the cedars of Lebanon. The natives-and some travellers- believe the most ancient of these trees to be the survivors of those cut down by Solomon, for the building of the Temple.

5 Mountain-It is difficult to understand how Calvary got the name of "mountain." The word means "a skull," and seems to have been given to a small hillock of that shape. Nothing that deserves the name of mountain can now be found, and there is no Scriptural authority for the term.

6 Sepulchre of God-the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, originally built by Constantine. That referred to in the text was built by the first Crusaders.

O'er the far-affrighted fields,
Resistless Kaliburn' he wields.
Proud Saracen, pollute no more
The shrines by martyrs built of yore!
From each wild mountain's trackless crown
In view thy gloomy castles frown:
Thy battering engines2 huge and high,
In vain our steel-clad steeds defy;
And, rolling in terrific state,

On giant-wheels harsh thunders grate.3

"Salem, in ancient majesty
Arise, and lift thee to the sky!
Soon on thy battlements divine
Shall wave the badge of Constantine.5
Ye barons, to the sun unfold

Our cross with crimson wove and gold."

Thomas Warton.

1

TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY.

ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH."

7

WEE, modest, crimson-tipped flower,

Thou's met me in an evil hour;

For I maun crush amang the stoures

Thy slender stem;

To spare thee now is past my power,

Thou bonnie9 gem.

Kaliburn-The sword of King Arthur, which, according to the monkish historians, came into the possession of Richard.

2 Battering-engines-battering-rams.

3 Giant-wheels-The word "giant" is used in some compounds in the sense of 'very large." See "giant-bounds," p. 22. "Horse" seems to bear the same interpretation in horse-chesnut, horse-leech, horse-laugh.

Salem-the ancient name of Jerusalem. It signifies "peace."

Badge of Constantine-This refers to the "labarum," as the magnificent banner was called, which Constantine, after his conversion, adopted as the imperial standard. It bore a cross woven in gold upon purple cloth; not crimson, as implied in the text.

6 The verses to the Mouse' and Mountain Daisy' were composed," says the poet's brother, "on the occasions mentioned, and while the author was holding the plough."

7 Wee-little.

8

Stoure-dust.

9

Bonnie-beautiful.