Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Give him lights auroral-give him glories,
Mingled of the rose and of the fire.

Let the wild winds, like chief mourners, walk,
Let the stars burn o'er his catafalque.

Hush! for the breeze, and the white fog's swathing sweep,

I cannot hear the simple service read,
Was it "earth to earth," the captain said,
Or "we commit his body to the deep,
Till seas give up their dead?"

BELOW AND ABOVE.

BY BISHOP ALEXANDER.

Down below, the wild November whistling Through the beech's dome of burning red, And the Autumn sprinkling penitential Dust and ashes on the chestnut's head.

Down below, a pall of airy purple, Darkly hanging from the mountain side, And the sunset from his eyebrow staring O'er the long roll of the leaden tide.

Up above, the tree with leaf unfading
By the everlasting river's brink,
And the sea of glass, beyond whose margin
Never yet the sun was known to sink.

Down below, the white wings of the sea-bird, Dash'd across the furrows dark with mould, Flitting with the memories of our childhood Through the trees now waxen pale and old.

Down below, imaginations quivering
Through our human spirits like the wind,
Thoughts that toss like leaves about the woodland,
Hopes like sea-birds flash'd across the mind.

Up above, the host no man can number,
In white robes, a palm in every hand;
Each some work sublime for ever working,
In the spacious tracts of that great land.

Up above, the thoughts that know not anguish,
Tender care, sweet love for us below,
Noble pity free from anxious terror,
Larger love without a touch of woe.

Down below, a sad mysterious music,
Wailing through the woods and on the shore,
Burthen'd with a grand majestic secret
That keeps sweeping from us evermore.

Up above, a music that entwineth,
With eternal threads of golden sound,
The great poem of this strange existence,

All whose wondrous meaning hath been found.

Down below, the church to whose poor window
Glory by the autumnal trees is lent,
And a knot of worshippers in mourning,
Missing some one at the Sacrament.

Up above, the burst of Hallelujah, And (without the sacramental mist Wrapt around us like a sunlit halo) The great vision of the face of Christ.

Down below, cold sunlight on the tombstones,
And the green wet turf with faded flowers;
Winter roses, once like young hopes burning,
Now beneath the ivy dripp'd with showers,

And the new-made grave within the churchyard,
And the white cap on that young face pale,
And the watcher, ever as it dusketh,
Rocking to and fro with that long wail.

Up above, a crown'd and happy spirit,
Like an infant in the eternal years,
Who shall grow in love and light for ever,
Order'd in his place among his peers.

O the sobbing of the winds of Autumn,
And the sunset streak of stormy gold,
And the poor heart, thinking in the churchyard,
"Night is coming, and the grave is cold."

O the pale, and plash'd, and sodden roses,
And the desolate heart that grave above,
And the white cap shaking as it darkens
Round that shrine of memory and love.

O the rest for ever, and the rapture,
And the hand that wipes the tears away;
And the golden homes beyond the sunset,
And the hope that watches o'er the clay!

THE BURIAL OF MOSES.

BY MRS. ALEXANDER.

By Nebo's lonely mountain, on this side Jordan's wave,

In a vale, in the land of Moab there lies a lonely grave;

And no man knows that sepulchre, and no man saw it e'er;

For, the angels of God upturned the sod, and laid the dead man there.

That was the grandest funeral that ever passed on earth;

But no man heard the trampling, or saw the train go forth

Noiselessly, as the Daylight comes back when Night is done,

And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek grows into the great sun.

This was the truest warrior that ever buckled sword;

Noiselessly, as the spring-time her crown of verdure weaves, And all the trees on all the hills open their thou- This the most gifted poet that ever breathed a sand leaves; word; So, without sound of music, or voice of them that And never earth's philosopher traced with his wept, golden pen, Silently down from the mountain's crown, the On the deathless page, truths half so sage as he great procession swept. wrote down for men.

Perchance the bald old eagle, on gray Beth-Peor's And had he not high honour,-the hill-side for a height, pall? Out of his lonely eyrie, looked on the wondrous To lie in state, while angels wait, with stars for sight; tapers tall? Perchance the lion stalking still shuns that hal- | And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes, over lowed spot, his bier to wave! For, beast and bird have seen and heard that And God's own hand, in that lonely land, to lay which man knoweth not! him in the grave!

But when the Warrior dieth, his comrades in the In that strange grave without a name,-whence his uncoffined clay

war,

With arms reversed and muffled drum, follow his Shall break again, O wondrous thought! before funeral car; the judgment-day, They show the banners taken, they tell his battles And stand, with glory wrapt around, on the hills he never trod,

won,

And after him lead his masterless steed, while And speak of the strife that won our life, with the peals the minute-gun. incarnate Son of God.

Amid the noblest of the land we lay the Sage to O lonely grave in Moab's land! O dark Beth-Peor's rest, hill! And give the Bard an honoured place, with costly Speak to these curious hearts of ours, and teach marble drest,them to be still.

In the great minster transept, where lights like God hath his mysteries of grace, ways that we glories fall, cannot tell; And the organ rings, and the sweet choir sings, He hides them deep, like the hidden sleep of him along the emblazoned wall. he loved so well!

FRANCIS DAVIS.

[Francis Davis, "the Belfast Man," was born | but twelve years old, and was consigned by in Ballincollig, county Cork, on March 7, 1810. His father, formerly a respectable farmer, had through folly enlisted in the army, and his mother, descended from a Highland Scotch family, was a woman of great intellectual and moral strength. To her the boy owed the first development of his natural gifts, and in her he was to a great extent compensated for the loss of those social advantages caused by the unfortunate position of his other parent. In the deepest poverty she inspired her son with a love for noble thoughts in verse, and to her may be attributed that manly independence and truthful character which have distinguished Mr. Davis throughout his long life. Of this best of friends he was bereaved when

his father to the care of a rich but miserly relative, from whom he well earned board and shelter. In the meantime his father died, and the boy, unable longer to endure the hard treatment of his guardian, was received by a small farmer, who eked out a scanty subsistence by working at the loom. Francis, anxious to free himself from the galling dependence which he had endured, soon became a skilled weaver. He then settled in Belfast, and "as the weaver plied his shuttle, wove he too the mystic rhyme." The agitation for Catholic Emancipation provided the youthful poet with a theme for many songs and ballads, which were sung in the streets of Irish towns, and did undoubted service to the cause.

About 1830 Davis travelled through England and Scotland, earning his living by his trade as he went, and writing poems all the while, studying at the same time French, Greek, Latin, and Gaelic. During this period also he contributed to the Nation newspaper and to various periodicals, spending some years in Manchester. Returning to Belfast in 1845, he resumed his toil; but his fame had preceded him, and he left the loom to edit the Belfastman's Journal. He then engaged in literary work for a Belfast firm, also contributing to several magazines and journals. He was elected successively to the positions of librarian in the People's Institute and assistant registrar in Queen's College. His poetical works are The Tablet of Shadows, The Lispings of the Lagan, Earlier and Later Leaves, or an Autumn Gathering, and several love poems and patriotic songs.]

CASTE AND CREED.1

Come, man! your hand, a brother sings,
Or silken be't or sergy;

The wars of nations leave to kings,
And those of creeds to clergy:
And taste with us that grand sublime
Which zests your every other,

By holding man, whate'er his clime,
His caste or creed, a brother!

May all who'd sow opposing views,

Their harvests find tremendous,
While, oh, from such, and from their dues,
The Lord of love defend us!

What, though the waves should walk the air,
Betwixt each earthly acre;
What, though each hill a differing pray'r
Should offer to its Maker;

Do these make men the less akin,

Or pleas for hate and slaughter?
If so, whate'er the weight of sin,
It lies with hills and water!

Ah, if, indeed, ye hold a creed,
That Conscience calls a high one,
Then hold it for your spirit's need,
And not a scourge for my one!

We've fair-we've foul in every clime,
In every creed and calling;
We've men to sport their chaff sublime
O'er every feather's falling;
We've men of straw, of stick, of stone;
We've soul whose savour such is

1 By permission of the author.

If, loathing virtue-blood and bone,
Adores the ghost on crutches!

Ah, Virtue, ever in our throats,

Much wear and tear attend thee!
For wear thou wilt, as wear our coats,
But, faith, 'tis worse to mend thee!
Still wherefore make the wordy moan

O'er ills that mayn't be mended—
Where will's so weak that thousands groan
In guilt they ne'er intended?
Our own poor mite of righteous ways,

Let's hold from frost and ferment--
But not for crowds or stated days,

Like Save-all's Sabbath garment!

Let's clear our light to show the right-
To aid in its extending;

And loathe the bile would green the sight,
O'er any Worth's ascending!

My neighbour's weal is weal to me,
If reared not on my ruin!
And though for what I feel or be,

He'd care no more than Bruin,
I'd say, enjoy your silken share-
Yea! as I hope for Heaven;
For Coin and Care a wedded pair
Are six times out of seven!

Miss Fortune trips a painted porch,
Too oft in slippery sandal,
Where coldlier glares her gilded torch,
Than Misery's farthing candle!

Then creeds and classes, To-or-Fro-
Thy smile with each, my brother!
We must have sun, and shade, and snow-
They'll come to aid each other!
Let matter, too, enjoy its grades,

Nor deem it an unsound thing-
"Twere just as wise to measure blades,
Because the world's a round thing!
We must have low-we must have high,
And many a niche between them;
The height may be a tinselled lie-
The men are what's within them!

And mark me, men, a day shall dawn
When neither serge nor ermine,

Nor clime nor class shall make the man-
Nor creed nor worth determine;
"Twill come-'twill come-and come to stand—
The caste of LOVE-LIGHT STATURE,
When Love alone, where'er your land,
Shall tell the who, and what you're!
God send it soon, in peace-in might,
God guide its rear and vanguard;
Hurra for Love! for Light! for Right!
The mind, and moral standard!
Then, brother man, if all agreed,
Though live we mayn't to see such,

Let's tack this trifle to our creed,

And chant a long "So be such!" All knavish souls, or high or low,

May conscience-cuffs distress them;
But honest hearts, where'er they grow,
The King of Kingdoms bless them!
May all who hold a sicklier thought,
Hold bitters, too, to mend it;

But bless, O Heaven, the better taught―
Their teaching, Lord, defend it!

MY KALLAGH DHU ASTHORE.

Again the flowery feet of June

Have tracked our cottage side;
And o'er the waves the timid moon
Steals, smiling like a bride:

But what were June or flowers to me,
Or waves, or moon, or more,
If evening came and brought not thee,
My Kallagh dhu asthore!

Let others prize their lordly lands,

And sceptres gemmed with blood; More dear to me the honest hands

That earn my babes their food: And little reck we queens or kings

When daily labour's o'er;
And by the evening embers sings
My Kallagh dhu asthore!

And when he sings, his every song
Is sacred freedom's own:

And like his voice his arm is strong,
For labour nursed the bone:
And then his step, and such an eye!

Ah, fancy! touch no more;
My spirit swims, in holy joy,
O'er Kallagh dhu asthore!

His voice is firm, his knee is proud,
When pomp's imperious tone
Would have the free-born spirit bowed,

That right should bow alone;

For well does Kallagh know his due,

Nor ever seeks he more;

Would Heaven mankind were all like you, My Kallagh dhu asthore!

And Kallagh is an Irishman

In sinew, soul, or bone;

Not e'en the veins of old Slieveban

Are purer than his own;

The wing of woe has swept our skies,

The foreign foe our shore, But stain or change thy race defics, My Kallagh dhu asthore!

What wonder, then, each word he said

Fell o'er my maiden day,

Like breathings o'er the cradle bed
Where mothers kiss and pray;

Though dear your form, your cheek, and eye, I loved those virtues more,

Whose bloom nor ills nor years destroy,

My Kallagh dhu asthore!

Oh could this heart, this throbbing thing,
Be made a regal chair,

I'd rend its every swelling string,
To seat you, Kallagh, there;
And oh, if honest worth alone

The kingly bauble bore,

No slave wert thou, my blood, my bone, My Kallagh dhu asthore!

ONLY A FANCY.

Hast thou ever known a flower Which, when years had bustled by, Flashed again upon thy dreamin sDreaming 'neath a darker skyTill its phantom light and fragrance Forced a moisture from thine eye,

As are those beloved faces,
Filling long-deserted places
In thy wakening memory?
Heaven help me, I am weary—

Ah, how weary can be known
To the Love that never sleepeth-
The Almighty love alone-
As I climb my silent towers-

Towers not of brick or stone-
Towers whose aërial porches,
Lit by Fancy's thousand torches,
Often flee beneath my moan!

Yet, I love my shadowy castles-
Ah, they're all the world to me!
Where, if limbs be weak and shackled,
All the soul is strong and free-
Free to build, and gild and glory,
In her might a queen to be,
Even while her home, more lowly,
'Mongst the wreck of things unholy,
She can, downward looking, see!

Thus I walked a moonlight garden
By my towers of the night,
With, at every side, a shadow

On my left and on my right;
They were spirits, good and evil,

One was dark and one was bright,
As is soul in infant faces,

Or as, in Day's death-embraces, Blusheth heaven's feathery white!

[blocks in formation]

[Dion Boucicault was born in Dublin on December 26, 1822. He was brought up under the guardianship of Dr. Dionysius Lardner, whose life and writings we have noticed in vol. iii. Boucicault had scarcely reached his majority when he produced the play of London Assurance, which was brought out at Covent Garden in March, 1841. It was enormously successful, has since remained a stock piece on the stage, and is perhaps the best of all his works. From that time forward Mr. Boucicault has been constantly before the public, either as author, actor, or theatrical manager, and frequently in the combined character of the three. He has written upwards of fifty pieces. In most of these he has been indebted to some other author for his story, but that does not take away from him the merit of having used his materials with great skill. Most of his works are a singular mixture of merits and defects. He possesses unquestionably wit, skill in describing character, and marvellous ingenuity in stage effects. On the other hand, he depends for a great part of his success on the aid of the stage carpenter, and his plays, when they come to be read, appear very poor in comparison with the impression they produce on the stage. Among his chief pieces may be mentioned London Assurance, already referred to, the Colleen Bawn, the Octoroon, Old Heads and Young Hearts, Janet Pride,

The Corsican Brothers, Louis XI., and The Shaughraun. Since 1876 Mr. Boucicault has lived in New York, where he has brought out several pieces, some of which have appeared on the London stage.]

THE MAN OF FASHION IN THE

COUNTRY.

(FROM "LONDON ASSURANCE.")

[Sir Harcourt Courtly is a London man of fashion: Charles is his son, a wild-going scapegrace: Max Harkaway is a country gentleman: Grace, his niece, is intended for Sir Harcourt: Meddle is a rural attorney, Dazzle a town adventurer, and Cool Sir Harcourt's servant.]

Enter MAX and SIR HARCOURT. Max. Here we are at last. Now give ye welcome to Oak Hall, Sir Harcourt, heartily.

Sir H. (Languidly.) Cool, assist me. (Cool takes off his furred cloak, gloves; gives him white gloves and a white handkerchief, then places a flower in his coat.)

Max. Why, you require unpacking as carefully as my best bin of port. Well, now you are decanted, tell me what did you think of my park as we came along?

Sir H. That it would never come to an end. You said it was only a stone's throw from

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »