POEMS OF "ALL EARTHLY JOY RETURNS IN PAIN." OF Lentren in the first morning, Thus sang ane bird with voice up-plain : O man! have mind that thou maun pass; Have mind that eild aye follows youth; Come never yet May so fresh and green, Evermair unto this warld's joy, Here health returns in seikness; Freedom returns in wretchedness, Virtue returnis into vice, With covetice is conscience slain : Sen earthly joy abidis never, WILLIAM DUNBAR THE LORDS OF THULE. THE lords of Thule it did not please He found them in chamber, found them iu hall. But the pious Willegis Could not be moved to bitterness; Seeing the wheels upon the wall, He bade his servants a painter call.; And said," My friend, paint now for me, On every wall, that I may see, A wheel of white in a field of red; "Willegis, bishop now by name, BARCLAY OF URY. Up the streets of Aberdeen, Pressed the mob in fury. Prompt to please her master; And the begging carlin, late Fed and clothed at Ury's gate, Cursed him as he passed her. Yet with calm and stately mien Came he slowly riding; Turning not for chiding. Came a troop with broadswords swinging, Bits and bridles sharply ringing, Loose, and free, and froward: Quoth the foremost, "Ride him down! Push him! prick him! Through the town Drive the Quaker coward!" But from out the thickening crowd Cried a sudden voice and loud: "Barclay! Ho! a Barclay!" And the old man at his side Saw a comrade, battle-tried, Scarred and sun-burned darkly; Who, with ready weapon bare, "Pledges of thy love and faith, Proved on many a field of death, Not by me are needed." Marvelled much that henchman bold, That his laird, so stout of old, Now so meekly pleaded. "Woe 's the day," he sadly said, And a look of pity; "Speak the word, and, master mine, And his Walloon lancers, Smiting through their midst, we'll teach Civil look and decent speech To these boyish prancers!" "Marvel not mine ancient friend- "Happier I, with ioss of all- With few friends to greet meThan when reeve and squire were seen Riding out from Aberdeen With bared heads to meet me⚫ HARMOSAN. "When each good wife, o'er and o'er, Blessed me as 1 passed her door; And the snooded daughter, Through her casement glancing down, Smiled on him who bore renown From red fields of slaughter. "Hard to feel the stranger's scoff, Hard the old friends' falling off, Hard to learn forgiving; But the Lord his own rewards, And his love with theirs accords Warm, and fresh, and living. "Through this dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking: Knowing God's own time is best, In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking!" So the laird of Ury said, Towards the Tolbooth prison, Preach of Christ arisen! Not in vain, confessor old, Of thy day of trial! Every age on him, who strays Happy he whose inward ear O'er the rabble's laughter; Of the good hereafter. In the world's wide fallow; After hands shall sow the seed, After hands from hill and mead Reap the harvests yellow. Thus, with somewhat of the seer, Must the moral pioneer From the future borrow Clothe the waste with dreams of grain, And, on midnight's sky of rain, Paint the golden morrow! JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. HARMOSAN. 595 Now the third and fatal conflict for the Persian throne was done, And the Moslem's fiery valor had the crowning victory won. Harmosan, the last and boldest the invader to defy, Captive, overborne by numbers, they were bringing forth to die. Then exclaimed that noble captive: "Lo, I perish in my thirst; Give me but one drink of water, and let then arrive the worst! " In his hand he took the goblet: but a while the draught forbore, Seeming doubtfully the purpose of the foeman to explore. Well might then have paused the bravestfor, around him, angry foes With a hedge of naked weapons did tha lonely man enclose. "But what fearest thou?" cried the caliph "is it, friend, a secret blow? Fear it not! our gallant Moslems no such treacherous dealing know. "Thou may'st quench thy thirst securely, for thou shalt not die before Thou hast drunk that cup of water-this reprieve is thine-no more!" Quick the satrap dashed the goblet down to earth with ready hand, And the liquid sank for ever, lost amid the burning sand. "Thou hast said that mine my life is, till the water of that cup I have drained; then bid thy servants that spilled water gather up!" For a moment stood the caliph as by doubtful passions stirred Then exclaimed, "For ever sacred must reinain a monarch's word. "Bring another cup, and straightway to the "O, my Balder! have I, have I found theenoble Persian give: Balder, beautiful as summer morn? Drink, I said before, and peris-now I bid O, my sun-god! hearts of heroes crowned thee drink and live!" RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH. thee For their king; they lost, but now have found thee; Gods and men shall not be left forlorn. BALDER. BALDER, the white sun-god, has departed! For the tears of the imperial mother, "Balder! brother! the Divine has vanished- Nature has no god, and earth lies dead. "Come thou back, my Balder-king and brother! Teach the hearts of men to love the gods! Come thou back, and comfort our great For a universe that weeps and prays, Rides Hermoder forth to seek his brotherRides for love of that distressful mother, Through lead-colored glens and cross-blue Come with truth and bravery, Balder, bro ways. With the howling wind and raving torrent, Nine days rode he, deep and deeper down— Reached the vast death-kingdom, rough and horrent, Reached the lonely bridge that spans the torrent Of the moaning river by Hell-town. There he found the ancient portress standing Vexer of the mind and of the heart: "Balder came this way," to his demanding Cried aloud that ancient portress, standing"Balder came, but Balder did depart; mother ther Bring the godlike back to men's abodes!" But the Nornas let him pray unheeded— Balder never was to come again. Young Hermoder wept and prayed in vain Oh, the trueness of this ancient story! 'Here he could not dwell. He is down yon- Still the young Hermoder journeys bravely, der Northward, further, in the death-realm he." Rode Hermoder on in silent wonder Through lead-colored glens and cross-blue ways; Still he calls his brother, pleading gravely— Mane of Gold fled fast and rushed down yon-Still to the death-kingdom ventures bravely— der! Brave and good mus: young Hermoder be. For he leaps sheer over Hela's portal, Saw him, and forgot his pain and woe. Calmly to the eternal terror prays But the fates relent not; strong endeavor, I need not ask thee if that hand, when armed, Has any Roman soldier mauled and knuckled; For thou wert dead, and buried, and em Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled: When the Memnonium was in all its glory, Of which the very ruins are tremendous. Speak! for thou long enough hast acted dummy; Thou hast a tongue-come-let us hear its tune; tongue Might tell us what those sightless orbs have seen How the world looked when it was fresh and young, And the great deluge still had left it green; Thou 'rt standing on thy legs, above ground, Or was it then so old that history's pages mummy! Revisiting the glimpses of the moon Not like thin ghosts or disembodied crea tures, Contained no record of its early ages? Still silent! incommunicative elf! Art sworn to secrecy? then keep thy vows; But with thy bones, and flesh, and limbs, and But prythee tell us something of thyself— features. Tell us for doubtless thou canst recollect Reveal the secrets of thy prison-house; Since in the world of spirits thou hast slumbered To whom should we assign the Sphinx's What hast thou seen-what strange adven And countless kings have into dust been humbled, In Memnon's statue, which at sunrise While not a fragment of thy flesh has crum |