Imatges de pàgina
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Youthful he seemed, and bold and strong,
And yet unscathed of wound.

Blithely he stepped among the throng,
And careless threw around

A dark eye, such as courts the path
Of him who braves a Dacian's wrath.

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Then shouted the plebeian crowd, ·
Rung the glad galleries with the sound;
And from the throne there spake aloud
A voice "Be the bold man unbound!
And by Rome's scepter yet unbowed,
By Rome, earth's monarch crowned,
Who dares the bold, the unequal strife,
Though doomed to death, shall save his life."

Joy was upon that dark man's face;
And thus, with laughing eye, spake he:
"Loose ye the lord of Zaara's waste,
And let my arms be free :

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He has a martial heart,' thou sayest; But oh! who will not be

A hero, when he fights for life,

For home and country, babes and wife!"

And he has bared his shining blade,
And springs he on the shaggy foe;
Dreadful the strife, but briefly played;-
The desert-king lies low:

His long and loud death-howl is made;
And there must end the show.

And when the multitude were calm,
The favorite freed-man took the palm.

"Kneel down, Rome's emperor beside !"
He knelt, that dark man; - o'er his brow
Was thrown a wreath in crimson dyed;
And fair words gild it now:

"Thou art the bravest youth that ever tried To lay a lion low;

And from our presence forth thou go'st

To lead the Dacians of our host.

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Then flushed his cheek, but not with pride,
And grieved and gloomily spake he:

"My cabin stands where blithely glide
Proud Danube's waters to the sea:
I have a young and blooming bride,
And I have children three :

No Roman wealth or rank can give
Such joy as in their arms to live.

"My wife sits at the cabin door,
With throbbing heart and swollen eyes;
While tears her cheek are coursing o'er.
She speaks of sundered ties.
She bids my tender babes deplore

The death their father dies:
She tells these jewels of my home,
I bleed to please the rout of Rome.

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SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

WHAT gives the mind its latent strength to scan, And chains brute instinct at the feet of man — Bids the wild comet, in its path of flame, Compute its periods and declare its name With deathless radiance decks historic page, And wakes the treasures of a buried age Majestic Science, from his cloistered shrine, Heard, and replied - -"This godlike power is mine." 'Oh, then," said man, "my troubled spirit lead, Which feels its weakness and deplores its need. Come, and the shadowy vale of death illume, Show sin a pardon, and disarm the tomb." High o'er his ponderous tomes his hand he raised, His proud brow kindling as the suppliant gazed:"With Ignorance I war and hoary Time.

Who wreck with Vandal rage my works sublime -
What can I more, dismiss your idle pain,
Your search is fruitless and your labor vain."
But from the cell where long she dwelt apart,
Her silent temple in the contrite heart,

Religion came, and where proud Science failed,

She bent her knee to earth, and with her Sire prevailed.

MRS. SIGOURNEY

THE O'KAVANAGH.

THE Saxons had met, and the banquet was spread,
And the wine in fleet circles the jubilee led;

And the banners that hung round the festal that night,
Seemed brighter by far than when lifted in fight.

In came the O'Kavanagh, fair as the morn,

When earth to new beauty and vigor is born;

They shrank from his glance, like the waves from the prow,
For nature's nobility sat on his brow.

Attended alone by his vassal and bard

No trumpet to herald, no clansmen to guard —
He came not attended by steed or by steel:

No danger he knew, for no fear did he feel.

In

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and on lip his high confidence smiled
So proud, yet so knightly-so gallant, yet mild;
He moved like a god through the light of that hall,
And a smile, full of courtliness, proffered to all.

"Come pledge us,
lord chieftain! come pledge us!" they cried'
Unsuspectingly free to the pledge he replied;
And this was the peace-branch O'Kavanagh bore—
"The friendships to come, not the feuds that are o'er!"

But, minstrel, why cometh a change o'er thy theme?
Why sing of red battle- what dream dost thou dream?
Ha! "Treason!"'s the cry, and "Revenge!" is the call,
As the swords of the Saxon surrounded the hall!

A kingdom for Angelo's mind! to portray
Green Erin's undaunted avenger that day:

The far-flashing sword, and the death-darting eye,
Like some comet commissioned with wrath from the sky.

-

Through the ranks of the Saxon he hewed his red way –
Through lances, and sabers, and hostile array;
And, mounting his charger, he left them to tell
The tale of that feast, and its bloody farewell.

And now on the Saxons his clansmen advance,
With a shout from each heart, and a soul in each lance:
He rushed, like a storm, o'er the night-covered heath,
And swept through their ranks, like the angel of death.

Then hurrah! for thy glory, young chieftain, hurrah!
Oh! had we such lightning-souled heroes to-day,
Again would our "sunburst" expand in the gale,
And Freedom exult o'er the green Innisfail !

J. AUGUSTUS SHEA.

"LOOK NOT UPON THE WINE."

LOOK not upon the wine when it
Is red within the cup!

Stay not for pleasure when she fills

Her tempting beaker up!

Though clear its depths, and rich its glow

A spell of madness lurks below.

They say 't is pleasant on the lip,
And merry on the brain;
They say it stirs the sluggish blood,
And dulls the tooth of pain.
Ay-but within its glowing deeps
A stinging serpent, unseen, sleeps.

Its rosy lights will turn to fire,

Its coolness change to thirst;
And, by its mirth, within the brain
A sleepless worm is nursed.
There's not a bubble at the brim
That does not carry food for him.

Then dash the brimming cup aside,
And spill its purple wine;

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A WARRIOR SO bold, and a virgin so bright,
Conversed as they sat on the green;
They gazed on each other with tender delight,
Alonzo the brave was the name of the knight,
The maid- was the fair Imogene.

"And ah!" said the youth, " since to-morrow I go
To fight in a far-distant land,

Your tears for my absence soon ceasing to flow,
Some other will court you, and you will bestow
On a wealthier suitor your hand."

"Oh, hush these suspicions!" fair Imogene said,
“So hurtful to love and to me;

For if you be living, or if you be dead,

I swear by the Virgin that none in your stead
Shall husband of Imogene be.

And if e'er for another my heart should decide,
Forgetting Alonzo the brave,

God grant that to punish my falsehood and pride,
Thy ghost at my marriage may sit by my side,
May tax me with perjury, claim me as bride,
And bear me away to the grave.”

To Palestine hastened the warrior so bold,
His love she lamented him sore;

But scarce had a twelvemonth elapsed, when behold!
A baron, all covered with jewels and gold,

Arrived at fair Imogene's door.

His treasure, his presents, his spacious domain,
Soon made her untrue to her vows;
He dazzled her eyes, he bewildered her brain,
He caught her affections, so light and so vain,
And carried her home as his spouse.

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