The Death of the Warrior King. But on my bier I'll lay Me down in frozen beauty, pale and wan, And, like a broken flower, gently decay. The Death of the Warrior King. BY CHARLES SWAIN, 'HERE are noble heads bow'd down and pale, ΤΗ Deep sounds of woe arise, And tears flow fast around the couch Where a wounded warrior lies; And the arm of might and valour falls I saw him 'mid the battling hosts, When, in his plenitude of power, I saw the routed Saracens Flee from his blood-dark brand. I saw him in the banquet hour To seek his favourite minstrel's haunt, 37 For dearly as he loved renown, He loved that spell-wrought strain, Which bade the brave of perish'd days Light Conquest's torch again. Then seem'd the bard to cope with Time, And triumph o'er his doom; Another world in freshness burst Oblivion's mighty tomb. Again the hardy Britons rush'd Like lions to the fight, While horse and foot, helm, shield, and lance, Swept by his vision'd sight. But battle shout and waving plume, The magic of the minstrel's song, Which told of victories o'er, Are sights and sounds the dying king It was the hour of deep midnight, In the dim and quiet sky, When, with sable cloak and broider'd pall, A funeral train swept by. Dull and sad fell the torches' glare On many a stately crest— They bore the noble warrior king To his last dark home of rest. Verses for an Album. 39 Verses for an Album. BY CHARLES LAMB. RESH clad from heaven in robes of white, FRES A young probationer of light, Thou wert, my soul, an album bright, A spotless leaf; but thought, and care, And Time, with heaviest hand of all, And Error, gilding worst designs- And Vice hath left his ugly blot, And fruitless, late Remorse doth trace, Disjointed members, sense unknit, My scalded eyes no longer brook "Los Moros Vienne." TRANSLATION OF THE CELEBRATED SPANISH ROMANCE. HERE'S a sound of arrows on the air, THE A sound of the thundering atabal, I see through the trees the banners glare; This eve they shall hang on the Christian's wall, And the haughty hands that those banners bore, This eve shall be stiff in their own dark gore. Then leave me, sweet lady, thy starry eyes That form for the silk and the gold of a throne. Yon plain shall be heap'd with the dying and dead. Hark! hark! 'tis the Christian's battle-horn, One kiss, sweet love, go-pray for Spain- Whose soul may on that fatal plain But linger for thy parting hymn. Song. 41 Song. BY JOSIAH CONDER. 'WAS not when early flowers were springing, 'TWA When skies were sheen, And wheat was green, And birds of love were singing, That first I loved thee, or that thou Didst first the tender claim allow. For when the silent woods had faded When fields were fallow, And the changed skies o'ershaded, 'Twas winter: cares and clouds were round me, Instead of flowers And sunny hours, When Love unguarded found me. Dear are the hours of summer weather, And hearts are light, And Love and Nature joy together. |