On that pleasant morn of the early fll, 'Shoot, if you must, this old gray bead, Wheu Lee marched over the mountain But spare your couutry's flag,' she said. wall, Over the mountains winding down. A shade of sadness, a blush of shame, Horse and fuot, into Frederick town, Over the face of the leader came; The noble nature withiu him stirred Forty flags with their silver stars, To life, at that woiran's deed and word. Forty tlugs with their silver bars, Flapped in the moruiny wind: the sun • Who touches a hair of yon gray head, Of noon looked down and saw not one. Dies like a dog. March on !' he said, All dayl og throuş'ı Frederick street Up rose old Barbara Fritchie then, Sounded the tread of marching feet; Bowed with her fourscore years and ten, Bravest of all in Frederick town, All day long the free flag tossed She took up the flag the men hauled down; Over the heads of the rebel host; Ever its toru folds : ose and fell In her attic window the staff she set, On the loyal winds, that loved it well; To show that ove heart was loval yet. Up the street came the rebil tread, And through the hill-gaps runset light Stonewall Jackson riding aheud; Shone over it with a warm good-night. Barbara Fritchie's work is o'er, Under his slouched hat left and right, And the rebel rides on his raid no more. He glapced; the old fag met his siyht. • Halt!'-the dust-brown ranks stood fast; Honour to her! and let a tear • Fire!'-out blazed the rifle blast. Fall, for her suke, on Stonewall's bier! Over Barbara Fritchie's grave, And ever the stars above look down She leaned far out on the window sill, On thy stars below, in Frederick town! Aud sbook it fortb with a royal will, ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. ARTHUR Hugh CLOUGH (1819-1861) was the son of a merchant in Liverpool. He was one of the pupils of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, to whom he was strongly attached ; and having won the Balliol scholarship in 1836, he went to Oxford. The Tractarian movement was then agitating the university, and Clough was for a time under its influence. He ultimately abandoned the Romanising party ; but his opinions were unsettled, and he never regained the full assurance of his early faith. In 1813 he was appointed tutor as well as Fellow of Oriel College, and laboured successfully for about five years, usually spending the long vacation among the Welsh mountains, the Cumberland lakes, or the Scotch Highlands His most important poem, • The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich' (1818), which he terms a long-vacation pastoral,' commemorates one of these holiday tours in the Highlands by the Oxford tutor and his pupils. It was written in hexameter verse, of which Southey had given a specimen in his • Vision of Judgment,' and contains a faitliful picture of Highland scenes and character. Clough grafts a love-story on his descriptive sketch, and makes one of the reading-party marry a Highland maiden and migrate to New Zealand. In 1848, from conscientious motives, the poet resigned his tutorship, and also gave up his fellow. ship. Next year he accepted the appointment of Principal of University Hall, London, but held it only for two years, at the end of which he went to America, and settled (October 1852) at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was drawn thence in less than a twelvemonth by the offer of an examinership in the Education Office, which he accepted; and to this was added, in 1856, the post of Secretary to a Commission for examining the scientific military schools on the continent. He took a warm interest in the philanthropic labours of Miss Nightingale ; and thus his life, though uneventful, was, as his biographer remarks, ‘full of work.' Ill health, however, compelled him to go abroad, and he died at Florence, November 13, 1861. Besides the Highland pastoral of 'The Bothie,' Clough produced a second long poem, 'Amours de Voyage,' the result of a holiday of travel in Italy, and of the impressions made upon him in Rome. His third long poem of 'Dipsychus' was written in Venice in 1850, and is much superior to the • Amours.' Another work. “Mari Magno,' consists of a series of tales on love and marriage, supposed to be related to each other by a party of companions on a sca-voyage. The tales are as homely in style and incident as those of Crabbe, but are less interesting and less poetical. A number of small occasional pieces, “poems of the inner life,' were thrown off from time to time by the poet; and selection from his papers, with letters and a memoir, edited by his widow, was published in two volumes in 1869. Autumn in the flighlands. Morning in the City. Which, withal, by inscrutable simultaneous access In a Gondola on the Grand Canal, Venice. A freshness to the languid air ; This level foor of liquid glass With no more effort than expressed Begins beneath us swift to pass. The need and naturalness of rest, It goes as though it went alone Which we beneath a grateful shade By some impulsion of its own. Should take on peaceful pillows laid ! (How light it moves, how softly! Ah, (How light we move, how softly! Ah, Were all things like the gondolà !) Were life but as the gondola !) How light it moveg, how softly! Ah, In one unbroken passage borne Could life as does our gondola, To closing night from opening morn, Unvexed with quarrels, aims, and cares, Uplift at whiles slow eyes to mark And moral duties and affairs, Some palace frout, some passing bark; Unswaying, noiseless, swift, and strong, Through windows catch the varying shore, For ever thus-thus glide along ! And hear the soft turns of the oar! (How light we move, how softy! Ah, (How light we move, how softly! Ah, Were life but as the gondola !) Were life but as the gondola I) WILLIAM WETMORE STORY, The distinguished American sculptor, MR. W. STORY, whose *Cleopatra' was the object of much interest and admiration in the Exhibition of 1862, has been a considerable contributor to our imaginative literature. His Ginevra da Siena,' a long poem published in Blackwood's Magazine' for June 1866 ; his ‘Primitive Christian in Rome,' published in the Fortnightly Review' for December 1866 ; and his ‘Graffiti d'Italia,' 1868, are productions of genuine worth and interest. In 1870 Mr. Story published a singular narrative poem in blank verse on Judas's betrayal of Christ. The poet assumes that Judas was really devoted to his Master, was of an enthusiastic temperament, and believed that, if he delivered up Jesus, a glorious manifestation of the Godhead would take place, confounding the Saviour's enemies, and prostrating them in adors . tion ; but when he saw Christ bound with cords and taken prisoner, he was overwhelmed with grief and borror, and flinging down the money he had received, went and hanged himself! The following is Mr. Storý's conception of the appearance of the Saviour on earth: Tall, slender, not erect, a little bent; And for the most part gazed upon the ground. Besides the above poems and others scattered through periodical works, Mr. Story is author of two interesting volumes in prose. *Roba di Roma, or Walks about Rome,' 1862. He has also published several legal works, and “The Life and Letters of Justico Story,' his father (1779–1845), a great legal authority in America. The artist himself is a native of Salem, Massachusetts, and was born in 1819. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. The successor of Mr. Longfellow in Harvard College has well sustained the honours of the professorial chair. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1819, appeared as an author in 1841, when he published a volume of poems entitled 'A Year's Life.' In 1844 he produced a second series of Poems;' in 1845, 'Conversations on some of the Old Poets;' in 1848 a third series of •Poems,' and The Biglow Papers,' a poetical satire on the invasion of Mexico by the United States, the slavery question, &c. In this last work Mr. Lowell seems to have struck into the true vein of his genius. His humour is rich and original, and his use of the Yankee dialect was a novelty in literature. "In his serious and sentimental verse the poet has several equals and some superiors in his own country ; but as a humourist he is unrivalled. In January 1855 Mr. Lowell succeeded Longfellow as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles lettres in Harvard College. In 1864 appeared a second series of “The Biglow Papers;' in 1869, . Under the Willows, and other Poems,' and The Cathedral,' an epic poem ; in 1870, a volume of prose essays entitled ' Among my Books;' and in 1871, ‘My Study Windows,' a second collection of essays, most of which had previously appeared in periodicals, and all of which are remarkable for critical taste and acumen. Mr. Lowell bas been connected editorially and as a contributor with many American reviews and magazines : he bas edited the poems of Marvell, Donne, Keats, Wordsworth and Shelley, and also delivered lectures on the British Poets. This popular author belongs to a family distinguished for literary attainments. His grandfather, Judge Lowell, and his father, Dr. Charles Lowell, pastor of the West Church, Boston, were both highly accomplished men, and several other relations were men of culture and eminence in society. His wife, nee Maria White (1821-1823), was a poetess of more than ordinary merit, and the subject of Longfellow's tine poem, • The two Angels. On Popular Applause. I thank ye, my friens, for the warmth o' your greetin'; I expected 'fore this, 'thout no gret of a row. Hints to Statesmen. |
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