And priest and peer their vows preferred But whose on high was soonest heard? Wild war was raging-proudly rose What heard the God of battles then? O strong is woman in the power And rich in her heart's sacred dower Literary Chronicle. DIRGE. SWEET be thy slumbers, child of woe! At the yew-tree's foot, by the fountain's flow!— May the firstling primrose blow, Pallid snow-drop bloom; And the blue-eyed violet grow, By thy lonely tomb! Duly there, at close of day, Let woman's tears bedew the clay! And dark ivy creep Mixed with fern and mosses grey, O'er thy last long sleep! C. D. M. THE FLIGHT OF XERXES. I saw him on the battle eve, When like a king he bore him! Proud hosts in glittering helm and greave, And prouder chiefs before him : The warrior, and the warrior's deeds, The morrow, and the morrow's meeds, No daunting thoughts came o'er him ;He looked around him, and his eye Defiance flashed to earth and sky! He looked on ocean,-its broad breast On earth, and saw from east to west While rock and glen, and cave and coast, I saw him next alone;- -nor camp, Nor banners blaze, nor coursers' tramp, He, who with Heaven contended, He stood,-fleet, army, treasure gone, While wave and wind swept ruthless on, And XERXES in a single bark, Where late his thousand ships were dark, Must all their fury dare;- STANZAS. M. J. J. BY T. K. HERVEY, ESQ. SLUMBER lie soft on thy beautiful eye! Spirits whose smiles are-like thine-of the sky, But loving and loved as a child of the earth! Why is that tear? Art thou gone, in thy dream, To the valley far off, and the moon-lighted stream, Where the sighing of flowers, and the nightingale's song, Fling sweets on the wave, as it wanders along? And now, as I watch o'er thy.slumbers, alone, I blame not the fate that has taken the rest, Slumber lie soft on thy beautiful eye! With the shade time has flung over all—but thy heart! Friendship's Offering. TO AN EAGLE. BY J. PERCIVAL. BIRD of the broad and sweeping wing, Where wide the storms their banners fling, Thou sittest, like a thing of light, The midway sun is clear and bright— Thy pinions to the rushing blast O'er the bursting billow spread, Where the vessel plunges, hurry past, Like an angel of the dead. Thou art perched aloft on the beetling crag, And the waves are white below, And on, with a haste that cannot lag, They rush in an endless flow. Again, thou hast plumed thy wing for flight To lands beyond the sea, And away, like a spirit wreathed in light, Art hurrying wild and free. Thou hurriest over the myriad waves, And thou leavest them all behind; Thou sweepest that place of unknown graves, Fleet as the tempest wind. When the night-storm gathers dim and dark, With a shrill and a boding scream, Thou rushest by the foundering bark, Lord of the boundless realm of air, The hearts of the bold and ardent dare From the river of Egypt's cloudy springs, For thee they fought, for thee they fell, Thou wert, through an age of death and fears, Till the gathered rage of a thousand years And then, a deluge of wrath it came, And it swept the earth, till its fields were flame, And where was then thy fearless flight?- To the lands that caught the setting light, There, on the silent and lonely shore, For ages, I watched alone, And the world, in its darkness, asked no more, Where the glorious bird had flown. "But then came a bold and hardy few, And they breasted the unknown wave; I caught afar the wandering crew, And I knew they were high and brave. |