POETRY. From the London Monthly Magazines. THE WAVES. HASTINGS, upon thy coast I stood Still onward, onward roli'd the flood: And Fancy, now thou turn'st my brain! Mark ye that plumy-crested surge Upon the sand that gentle wave Wearing and splashing through these rocks, Wind through, and on the shore expire ! How sweetly these round billows rise, Far off a hoary head I view, And life's last tears. The sea-bird's breast How blest, if so; for lo the gale Increasing flaps the shuddering sail, Wild ocean bellows loud, and fierce The tempest sweeps, the drear winds pierce With dismal howl, the waters rave,Nothing can 'scape the yawning grave ; And every mortal, wreck'd, may know There is no safety here below. Ah me! my dream of waves is o'er; Another reflux bares the shore, Another influx comes again, And new each shape in, on, the main My heroes, lovers, bards all fled, And Man, whence springs thy senseless pride? 'Tis but a century or a tide? Hastings, August 21, 1819. TEUTHA. * We quote such songs with sincere pleasure. The noble sentiment and national glory dependent upon them are beyond calculation. Infinite have been the loyalty and bravery created by "God save the King," and Thomson's famous conclusion of the Masque of Alfred, "Rule Britannia;" and in our opinion, the musick of both is sublime. We do not know the tune of the " Rantz des Vaches." The "amour des pays," has never been, as we know, naturally explained. It is strongest in poorest countries; they are generally mountainous and picturesque. The YOL. 6.] I Original Poetry. TO THE PLANET JUPITER.* LOOKED on thee, Jove, till my gaze Sank, smote from the pomp of thy blaze; For my soul was absorbed in the night • So beautifully seen in the heavens at present. THI LINES. BY BARRY CORNWALL, ESQ. HE night was glory. Through the skies of June Midst dark and heavy clouds that bore And there were cars steeds with their proud necks Tower, and temple,--and broken continent: In the blue ether floated silently. I lay upon my bed and sank to sleep: And then I fancied that I rode upon The waters, and had power to call impressions are therefore strong, and, as And ever by me a broad current passed First I saw a landscape fair Like Ida's woody summits, and sweet fields, Like Olympian queen descended. With simple flowers; the third was crowned, On Jove, though the blue skies were shaken; And towers that touched the stars, and halls Palace on lofty palace sprung: And over all rich gardens hung, Where, amongst silver waterfalls, Cedars and spice-trees and green bowers, And sweet winds playing with all the flowers Walked princely shapes: some with an air In supreme magnificence. That glorious vision passed on. And then I heard the laurel-branches sigh 87 That still grow where the bright-eyed muses walked: Mournfully to the fields of Thessaly. The silence which that holy place had bred I knelt-and as I knelt, haply in token And how she smilled, and kissed his wiling hands, Shall one like thee tread on the Egypt shore, Never shall one laugh, love, or die like thee, And, brave Mark Antony, that thou could'st give With that enchantress, did become thee well: Queen and thou, lofty triumvir, fare ye well. And then I heard the sullen waters roar. In the sea-caverns, moved by those fierce jars, Was that night unto the great Neptune born: Came up like phantoms from their coral halls, HYMN. (From C. Dibdin's " Young Arthur.”) HERE is an eye that all surveys, There is a power for all purveys, There is a grace when mortals grieve HEBREW MELODY. BY THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. 1 SAW ye the rose of the East, In the valley of Sharon that grows? Ye daughters of Judah, how bl st To breathe in the sweets of my rose ! Come, tell me if yet she's at rest In her couch with the lilies inwove; Or if wantons the breeze with her breast, For my heart it is sick for my love. 2 I charge you, ye virgins unveil'd, That stray 'mong the sycamore trees, By the roes and the hinds of the field, That ye wake not my love till she please. The garden with flowers is in biow, And roses unnumber'd are there; Then tell how thy love we shall know, For the daughters of Zion are fair?" 3 A bed of frankincense her cheek, And wreath of sweet myrrh is her hand; Her eye the bright gem that they seek By the rivers and streams of the land; Her smile from the morning she wins; Her teeth are the lambs on the hill; Her breasts two young roes that are twins, And feed on the vallies at will. 4 As the cedar 'mong trees of the wood, 'Mid the stars and the planets above,→ Even so among women is she, And my bosom is ravished with love! 5 Return with the evening star, And our couch on Amana shall be; From Shinar and Hermon afar Thou the ountains of leopards shall see. O, Shulamite, turn to thy rest, Where the olive o'ershadows the land; ORIGIN OF THE RED ROSE. AS, erst, in Eden's blissful bow'rs, Young Eve survey'd her countless flow'rs, An op'ning rose, of purest white, She mark'd, with eyes that beam'd delight. Its leaves she kiss'd: and, straight, it drew, From Beauty's lip, the vermeil hue. John Carey. NARRATIVE OF D. G. DUMONT, RELATING HIS CAPTIVITY OF THIRTY-FOUR YEARS IN THE TERRITORY OF MOUNT FELIX, BETWEEN ORAN AND ALGIERS. § HAVING thus given a specimen of the early part of our hero's adventures, and treatment, we shall not follow him so minutely through a variety of less interesting details relative to the manners and customs of the Arabs, more complete accounts of which being to be found in the narratives of Tully and Panantit much more at length. But in order that no material points of so singular a story may be withheld from our readers, they will be given in a more abridged form, when not thought sufficiently important to be related in the words of Dumont himself. As the prison allowance was totally inadequate to satisfy the cravings of hunger, under such severe labour, the slaves were under the necessity of having recourse to every means within their reach to supply the deficiency. This was generally effected at noon, when the keepers went through a religious ceremony of ablution, or, when no water could be found, rubbing the body over with a stone. As nothing whatever could induce them either to omit this practice, or suspend it when once be § See p. 74. * Letters written during a Ten Years' Residence at the Court of Tripoly. 4to, 2d edit. 1818. + Narrative of a Residence in Algiers, by Signor Pananti, with Notes and Illustrations by Edw. Blaquiere, esq. 4to. 1818. M ATHENEUM VOL. 6. gun, it was invariably the signal of foraging for the slaves, who instantly spread themselves around the spot, and seized every thing they could lay their hands on, whether in a garden or house, that did not happen to be carefully watched. The marauders generally paid rather dearly for this species of indulgence, for no sooner were they discovered by the pious keepers, than vollies of stones, kept in bags suspended from the saddles of the latter's horses, brought them back, for the purpose of receiving the usual salutations of the bamboo! On one occasion Dumont was fortunate enough to steal a sheep; this enabled him to regale the two slaves who slept next to him in the prison for a whole week; to complete this good fortune, he sold the skin for an old copper kettle, which induced them to stew the bones, and make a very good soup. The only bad consequences attending this proof of Dumont's ingenui ty, was a few hundred blows from one of the keepers. It seems they suffered dreadfully from heat and thirst; to remedy the first, it was usual for each slave to cover his head with a wreath of leaves while his beard generally shielded his breast— that of Dumont reached to his middle. The intolerable sensations caused by thirst were assuaged by chewing some straw, or keeping an olive stone in his mouth. Nothing, however, could exceed the misery occasioned by the prison's taking fire, while all the slaves were shut up in it; though no lives were lost, nearly all the victims had their hair and beards burnt off; and as the water intended for their use was employed to extinguish the flames; they were left without a drop for several hours, in the midst of a suffocating heat, and suffering great pain from the effects of the fire. This horrible scene was terminated by a most liberal distribution of the bamboo, which the keepers applied to some for not foreseeing the accident, and to others because they would have gladly taken advantage of the general confusion to effect their escape! The narrator remarked that the keepers were most barsh in their treatment of those who appeared to be endowed with a greater share of sensibility than the rest; this he profited by, in making a point of assuming an air of cheerfulness, singing, &c. whenever the taskmasters began their office of daily punishment, a proof of philosophy which generally saved him from half the quota. "This fellow," the keepers would exclaim, "is made of iron, it's therefore of no use to beat him!" The arrival of a prince, who came from Morocco for the purpose of collecting the annual tribute, indirectly led to a series of persecutions from Dumont's keeper, which not only embittered his situation very much, but eventually almost produced his death. Having contrived to excite the prince's commiseration in favour of his companions, the former gave him a hundred sequins, which he immediately distributed among them. As the keeper wit nessed the receipt and distribution of this sum, it occurred to him that Dumont ought to have made him a participator: a neglect of which duty exposed him to the most cruel treatment imaginable. No longer able to endure the severity of his persecutor he formed the resolution of being revenged; and accordingly, when next struck by the latter, he seized a large stone, and threw it with such force at the keeper's eye, that it was forced from the socket. Owing to the blows received on his hand disabling Dumont from pursuing the ordinary labours of the field, he was appointed to turn a grindstone, a service in which he continued for a twelvemonth, exposed to the insults of all the Mussulmans, who, knowing him to be the cause of getting a keeper put to death, did not fail to manifest their rage by frequent kicks, abuse, spitting in his face, &c. The keepers are responsible for every slave committed to their charge; so that if the head or chain of any one that may be missing is not brought back to the prison, their lives are surely forfeited. They are not treated with more ceremony than the slaves themselves on these occasions: the mode of executing a keeper is by making him kneel down between two Koubals, one of whom pierces his side with a lance; this causes him to raise his head, upon which the other takes it off with a single blow of a Damascus. It sometimes happens that the blade comes in contact with a bone in this case a sound is produced like that of a small bell. Osman has two sons, both very fine looking young men, who sometimes visited the prison to show their dexterity in using the attaghan and scymetar. |