gloom that surrounds her. Her poetry breathes a Christian spirit, and most of her pieces have been inspired by personal affliction or national calamity, when she seems amidst the sorrow to stand out and minister words of comfort and hope to all around her. THE SHETLAND FISHERMEN. (Written on hearing an account read of the fishing disaster which occurred at Shetland, July 27th, 1881.) How little does the world know Of all the agonizing woe Which rends the heart and blights the life There is this day in our loved land The widow weeps and sighs in vain But elder children weeping, say, No more when daily toils are o'er, Yes, it is true, the storm was wild, The gloomy morning dawned at last, But leave them now their grief to bear- MOTHER. How dark appear the ways of God At His own time, in His own way, For, oh, what heart can love us so, And with what patience did she share Yet she has only gone before, And though we'll see her here no more, COMFORT IN ADVERSITY. Fortunes may adverse appear, God is gracious, and His love God the Father, we implore, Then, whate'er our fortunes be, Till the shadows flee away, A FRIEND. O! how is it so hard to find One who will still remain our friend While fortune favours all our plans, When things go smoothly with the stream But let misfortune turn our barque Against the running tide, We look around and find not one To pity near;our side. Why should the melancholy fact So often come to view! Why don't our friends, despite our fate, For when cares and trials come, "Tis then we need to hear the words, And yet 'tis then that we are left In times like these we often wish But is there no one who will help O! there is One who still remains Whoe'er hath friends must show himself Friendly to every man ; And there is One who clings more close ROBERT HETRICK. N more cases than that of Elihu Burritt, the learned blacksmith of America, intellectual sparks" have been showered from the anvil, and that, too, at a time when intellectual culture was not so common among the working classes as it is now. We have an instance of this in the case of Robert Hetrick, the poetical blacksmith of Dalmellington, whose school learning, though of the slenderest kind, did not prevent him from acquiring much general information, and from taking no mean place among the minor poets of his native land. He was born at Dalmellington in the early part of the year 1769, only ten years after Robert Burns, whom, however, he survived for the long period of fifty-three years— dying in 1849, in the eighty-first year of his age. His father was a working blacksmith; and from the books in his small library he would seem also to have been a man of some literary taste and intelligence, for in it were to be found such works as Addison's Spectator, Robertson's "History of Scotland," with a life of " Sir William Wallace." These and similar works early engendered in his son a literary taste; and there cannot be a doubt but that the beauty and sublimity of the surrounding scenery tended much to nurse and to inspire his latent poetic sympathies. Only a little way to the south lies Loch Doon, craddled amid hills of lonely and stern grandeur; while at its northern end the river of the same name breaks away from it, and, for almost a mile, thunders and foams through a narrow gorge of black riven rocks which frown overhead. This romantic river, which Robert Burns has made classic, is as remarkable for the rugged sublimity of the scenery at its source, as it is for the soft sylvan beauty of its lower course and at its embouchure. After his scanty education he was put to the blacksmith trade, and though welding the red-hot iron when very young, he at the same time began to weave poetic lays. He had long been known as a poet, though he was in no hurry to give a volume to the world. During the stirring period of the French War, his patriotic songs frequently appeared, and were much admired in the columns of the newspapers of the day. It was not until he had reached the mature age of 57, however, that, in 1826, he published his "Poems and Songs," which were not only popular then, but are much prized still in his native county. The principal poem, "The Craigs of Ness," is descriptive of the romantic mountain gorge through which the Doon breaks away from the lake, and shows descriptive powers and the power also of poetic numbers in a high degree, and what is very rare with the uneducated poets, an ability to write correctly and musically in the grand and rolling heroic couplet. As he grew old, and had to give over work, he took great delight in listening to the musical youths of the village singing his own songs. It is pleasing to know that, though he had never been possessed of riches, he had sufficient to maintain him in comfort until the close of his long career. He was laid to rest in the quiet little churchyard of his native village, the inhabitants of which still lovingly cherish his memory. AULD LANGSYNE. How pleasant were our infant years, When mix'd with less intruding cares Nae crimes within our youthful breasts For then we were completely blest In Auld Langsyne. |