Imatges de pàgina
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But let the angry sun

From heaven look fiercely red,
Unfelt by those whose task is done-
There slumber England's dead.

The hurricane hath might
Along the Indian shore,
And far, by Ganges' banks at night
Is heard the tiger's roar.

But let the sound roll on!
It hath no tone of dread

For those that from their toils are gone-
There slumber England's dead.

Loud rush the torrent-floods
The western wilds among,

And free, in green Columbia's woods,
The hunter's bow is strung.

But let the floods rush on!
Let the arrow's flight be sped!
Why should they reck whose task is done?-
There slumber England's dead!

The mountain-storms rise high
In the snowy Pyrenees,

Ana toss the pine-boughs through the sky,
Like rose-leaves on the breeze.

But let the storm rage on!
Let the forest-wreaths be shed!
For the Roncesvalles' field is won-
There slumber England's dead.

On the frozen deep's repose
'Tis a dark and dreadful hour,
When round the ship the icefields close,
To chain her with their power.

VOL. II.-Q

But let the ice drift on!

Let the cold-blue desert spread!
Their course with mast and flag is done-
There slumber England's dead.

The warlike of the isles,
The men of field and wave!
Are not the rocks their funeral piles,
The seas and shores their grave?

Go, stranger! track the deep,
Free, free the white sail spread!
Wave may not foam, nor wild wind sweep,
Where rest not England's dead.

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

THE breaking waves dash'd high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods, against a stormy sky,
Their giant branches toss'd;

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moor'd their bark
On the wild New-England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted came;

Not with the roll of the stirring drums,

And the trumpet that sings of fame;

Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear;

They shook the depths of the desert's gloom

With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amid the storm they sang,

And the stars heard and the sea!

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang

To the anthem of the free!

The ocean-eagle soar'd

From his nest by the white wave's foam,
And the rocking pines of the forest roared-
This was their welcome home!

There were men with hoary hair
Amid that pilgrim-band;

Why had they come to wither there,
Away from their childhood's land?

There was woman's fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?

They sought a faith's pure

Ay, call it holy ground,

shrine!

The soil where first they trod !

They have left unstain'd what there they foundFreedom to worship God!

THE GRAVE OF KÖRNER.

GREEN wave the oak for ever o'er thy rest,
Thou that beneath its crowning foliage sleepest,
And, in the stillness of thy country's breast,
Thy place of memory, as an altar, keepest;
Brightly thy spirit o'er her hills was pour'd,
Thou of the lyre and sword!

Rest, bard! rest, soldier! by the father's hand
Here shall the child of after years be led,
With his wreath-offering, silently to stand
In the hush'd presence of the glorious dead.
Soldier and bard! for thou thy path hast trod
With freedom and with God.

The oak waved proudly o'er thy burial rite,

On thy crown'd bier to slumber warriors bore thee, And with true hearts thy brethren of the fight [thee; Wept as they vail'd their drooping banners o'er And the deep guns, with rolling peal, gave token That lyre and sword were broken.

Thou hast a hero's tomb: a lowlier bed

Is hers, the gentle girl beside thee lying;
The gentle girl, that bow'd her fair young head
When thou wert gone, in silent sorrow dying.
Brother, true friend! the tender and the brave,
She pined to share thy grave.

Fame was thy gift from others: but for her-
To whom the wide world held that only spot-
She loved thee: lovely in your lives ye were,
And in your early deaths divided not.

Thou hast thine oak, thy trophy: what hath she?
Her own best place by thee!

It was thy spirit, brother! which had made

The bright world glorious to her thoughtful eye,
Since first in childhood mid the vines ye play'd,
And sent glad singing through the free blue sky.
Ye were but two: and when that spirit pass'd,
Wo to the one, the last!

Wo, yet not long she linger'd but to trace
Thine image from the image in her breast,
Once, once again to see that buried face

But smile upon her ere she went to rest.
Too sad a smile! its living light was o'er:
It answer'd hers no more.

The earth grew silent when thy voice departed, The home too lonely whence thy step had fled: What then was left for her, the faithful-hearted? Death, death, to still the yearning for the dead. Softly she perish'd; be the flower deplored,

Here with the lyre and sword.

Have ye not met ere now? so let those trust
That meet for moments but to part for years,
That weep, watch, pray, to hold back dust from dust,
That love where love is but a fount of tears.
Brother, sweet sister! peace around ye dwell!
Lyre, sword, and flower, farewell!

RHINE SONG.

It is the Rhine! our mountain vineyards laving,
I see the bright flood shine:

Sing on the march, with every banner waving :
Sing, brothers, 'tis the Rhine!

The Rhine! the Rhine, our own imperial river!
Be glory on thy track!

We left thy shores to die or to deliver,

We bear thee freedom back!

Hail! hail! my childhood knew the rush of water, E'en as my mother's song;

That sound went past me on the field of slaughter, And heart and arm grew strong!

Roll proudly on! brave blood is with thee sweeping, Pour'd out by sons of thine,

Where sword and spirit forth in joy were leaping, Like thee, victorious Rhine!

Home! home! thy glad wave hath a tone of greeting, Thy path is by my home:

Even now my children count the hours till meeting,
Oh ransom'd ones, I come!

Go tell the seas that chains shall bind thee never,
Sound on by hearth and shrine !

Sing through the hills that thou art free for ever-
Lift up thy voice, oh Rhine!

Q2

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