"LOOK UP, RISE UP; FOR FAR ABOVE OUR PALMS ARE GROWN, OUR PLACE IS SET;-(ROSSETTI)

"WATCH WITH ME, BLESSED SPIRITS, WHO DELIGHT (ROSSETTI)

SUMMER.

And blue-black beetles transact business,

And gnats fly in a host,
And furry caterpillars hasten
That no time be lost,

And moths grow fat and thrive,
And ladybirds arrive.

367

""And ladybirds arrive."]

Before green apples blush,
Before green nuts embrown,
Why, one day in the country
Is worth a month in town--
Is worth a day and a year

Of the dusty, musty, lag-last fashion
That days drone everywhere.

ALL THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT TO WALK IN WHITE."-ROSSETTI.

THERE WE SHALL MEET, AS ONCE WE MET, AND LOVE WITH OLD FAMILIAR LOVE."-ROSSETTI.

"THERE IS NO TIME LIKE SPRING, WHEN LIFE'S ALIVE IN EVERY THING,-(CHRISTINA ROSSETTI)

368

66

WATCH WITH ME, JESUS, IN MY LONELINESS:-(ROSSETTI)

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.

GONE FOR EVER.

HAPPY rosebud, blooming
Upon thy parent tree,-
Nay, thou art too presuming;
For soon the earth entombing
Thy faded charms shall be,
And the chill damp consuming.

["O happy skylark, springing up to the broad blue sky.")

O happy skylark, springing

Up to the broad blue sky,
Too fearless in thy winging,

THOUGH OTHERS SAY ME NAY, YET SAY THOU YES."-ROSSETTI.

BEFORE DEFT SWALLOWS SPEED THEIR JOURNEY BACK ALONG THE TRACKLESS TRACK."-ROSSETTI.

ONE CRIED, HOW LONG? YET FOUNDED ON THE ROCK

GONE FOR EVER.

369

Too gladsome in thy singing,

Thou also soon shalt lie

Where no sweet notes are ringing.

And through life's shine and shower
We shall have joy and pain;
But in the summer bower,

And at the morning hour,

We still shall look in vain

For the same bird and flower.

[Our three extracts are taken from "The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems" edition 1866).]

"I LOOKED FOR THAT WHICH IS NOT, NOR CAN BE, AND HOPE DEFERRED MADE MY HEART SICK IN TRUTH;

BUT YEARS MUST PASS BEFORE A HOPE OF YOUTH IS RESIGNED UTTERLY."-CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.

Sir Walter Scott.

[THE great Scotch poet and novelist, critic, essayist, and historian, was born in the city of Edinburgh on the 15th of August 1771. He was educated at the High School and University of Edinburgh, acquiring some knowledge of the ancient and modern languages, and a vast variety of miscellaneous information. Among his school-fellows he acquired great fame as a story-teller. Studying for the bar, he gained his advocate's gown in 1792; was married in 1797; and in 1799 obtained the appointment of Sheriff of Selkirkshire. Three years previously he had published translations of Pürger's "Lenore" and "The Wild Huntsman," which preserved all the fire of the original; in 1802 appeared his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border;" and in 1805 his "Lay of the Last Minstrel," which inaugurated a career of romantic brilliancy. In 1806 he was appointed one of the principal Clerks of the Court of Session. His magnificent poetical romance of "Marmion" was issued in 1808; "The Lady of the Lake" in 1810; "The Vision of Don Roderick" in 1811; "Rokeby" in 1812. The old mine, says Lord Lytton, now gave symptoms of exhaustion, but a new mine, ten times more affluent, was discovered; and in the novel of "Waverley," published anonymously in 1814, Scott took the reading world by storm. A long succession of brilliant fictions followed, the poorest of which would have made the reputation of any other writer; and "The Antiquary," "Guy Mannering," Ivanhoe," Kenilworth," "Old Mortality," "The Bride of Lammermoor," enchanted and enthralled thousands of delighted readers. Their popularity has suffered no diminution, and they have been translated into the principal European languages.

With the immense profits of these works Scott "created" the house and demesne of Abbotsford, on the banks of the Tweed, near Melrose, and

SHE SHALL DO BATTLE, SUFFER, AND ATTAIN." -ROSSETTI.

"CAN PIETY THE DISCORD HEAL, OR STAUNCH THE DEATH-FEUD'S ENMITY?-'SCOTT)

370

"ONE CROWDED HOUR OF GLORIOUS LIFE—(Scott)

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

assumed the state of a landed proprietor. In 1820 he received the honour
of a baronetcy. Unfortunately, some speculations into which he had entered
conjointly with his publishers, and their disastrous bankruptcy in 1826,
clouded all this prosperity, and Scott found himself saddled with debts to
the amount of £117,000. Declining all offers of assistance, he gallantly set
to work to clear off this heavy burden by his literary exertions, and in four
years earned no less than £70,000. He still continued his labours; but
they broke him down. He had conquered, but paid for the victory with
his life. In 1830, and again in 1831, he suffered some attacks of paralysis.
As a last hope of recovering his shattered health, he made a voyage to
Naples; but his illness rapidly increased. At his urgent request he was
carried homewards with all possible speed, and arrived at Abbotsford
utterly and irretrievably prostrated. He survived but a few weeks, and
died on the 21st of September 1832, in the presence of all his children.
The general characteristics of Scott's poetry have been ably summed up by
the late Lord Jeffrey: "With regard to diction and imagery, it is obvious that
he has not aimed at writing either in a very pure or a very consistent style.
He seems to have been anxious only to strike, and to be easily and univer-
sally understood; and for this purpose to have culled the most glittering
and conspicuous expressions of the most popular authors, and to have inter-
woven them in splendid confusion with his own nervous diction and irregu-
lar versification. Indifferent whether he coins or borrows, and drawing
with equal freedom on his memory and his imagination, he goes boldly for-
ward, in full reliance on a never-failing abundance, and dazzles with his
richness and variety even those who are most apt to be offended with his
glare and irregularity. There is nothing in Scott of the severe and majestic
style of Milton-or of the terse and fine composition of Pope-or of the
elaborate elegance and melody of Campbell-or even of the flowing and
redundant diction of Southey. But there is a medley of bright images and
glowing words, set carelessly and loosely together—a diction tinged suc-
cessively with the careless richness of Shakespeare, the harshness and
antique simplicity of the old romances, the homeliness of vulgar ballads
and anecdotes, and the sentimental glitter of the most modern poetry-
passing from the borders of the ridiculous to those of the sublime-alter-
nately minute and energetic-sometimes artificial and frequently negli-
gent, but always full of spirit and vivacity—abounding in images that are
striking at first sight to minds of every contexture-and never expressing a
sentiment which it can cost the most ordinary reader any exertion to com-
prehend."]

THE BALLAD OF LOVELY ROSABELLE.

LISTEN, listen, ladies gay!

No haughty feats of arms I tell ;
Soft is the note and sad the lay

That mourns the lovely Rosabelle. —

IS WORTH AN AGE WITHOUT A NAME."- -SCOTT.

CAN CHRISTIAN LOVE, CAN PATRIOT ZEAL, CAN LOVE OF BLESSED CHARITY?"-SCOTT.

IN HALLS, IN GAY ATTIRE IS SEEN; IN HAMLETS, DANCES ON THE GREEN;-(SIR WALTER SCOTT)

66 IN PEACE, LOVE TUNES THE SHEPHERD'S REED;

THE BALLAD OF LOVELY ROSABELLE.

"Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew!
And, gentle ladye, deign to stay!
Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch,

Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day.

"The blackening wave is edged with white;
To inch and rock the sea-mews fly;
The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite,
Whose screams forebode that wreck is nigh.

"Last night the gifted Seer did view
A wet shroud rolled round ladye gay :
Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch;
Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?"-

"'Tis not because Lord Lindesay's heir
To-night at Roslin leads the ball;
But that my ladye-mother there
Sits lonely in her castle hall.

"'Tis not because the ring they ride,
And Lindesay at the ring rides well;
But that my sire the wine will chide,
If 'tis not filled by Rosabelle."-

O'er Roslin all that dreary night
A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;
'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light,
And redder than the bright moonbeam.

*Isle; as Inchkeith.

371

IN WAR, HE MOUNTS THE WARRIOR'S STEED;

LOVE RULES THE COURT, THE CAMP, THE GROVE; AND MEN BELOW, AND SAINTS ABOVE."-SCOTT.