Blent with the season and the scene, From out her treasured stores, Reflection Looks to the days when Life was green, With fond and thrilling retrospection ; The earth again seems haunted ground : Youth smiles, by Hope and Joy attended And bloom afresh young flowers around, With scent as rich, and hues as splendid. This is a chilling world-we live Bare rocks to frail feet wandering thither. Friend after friend, joy after joy, Have like night's boreal gleams departed; Ah! how unlike the impassioned boy Is Eld, white-haired and broken-hearted! How oft, 'mid eves as clear and calm, These wild-wood pastures have I strayed in, When all these scenes of bliss and balm Blue Twilight's mantle were arrayed in! Fair Star! with calm repose and peace Star of the Mariner! thy car, O'er the blue waters twinkling clearly, Reminds him of his home afar, And scenes he loves, ah! still how dearly! He sees his native fields, he sees Gray twilight gathering o'er his mountains; And hears the murmuring of green trees, The bleat of flocks, and gush of fountains. How beautiful, when through the shrouds O'er waves that lash, and winds that battle! And as, athwart the billows driven, He turns to thee in fond devotion, Star of the Sea! thou tell'st that heaven O'erlooks alike both land and ocean. Star of the Mourner! 'mid the gloom, Of him who left her broken-hearted; To tell that Heaven's eye glows above her. Star of the Lover! oh, how bright Above the copsewood dark thou shinest, As longs he for those eyes of light, For him whose lustre burns divinest: Earth and the things of Earth depart, Yes, thine the hour when, daylight done, Soft shines the moon, bright shines the sun, Still is thy beam as fair and young, With burning soul, in lays immortal. Star of the Poet! thy pale fire, The loftiest themes of meditation; Beneath the Earth turns Paradise, Bright leader of the hosts of Heaven! Forth from the East thy chariot glided: Star of the bee! with laden thigh, Thy twinkle warns its homeward winging; Star of the bird! thou bid'st her lie Down o'er her young, and hush her singing ; Star of the pilgrim, travel-sore ! The shadow of his native mountains! Thou art the star of Freedom; thou Undo'st the bonds which gall the sorest; Thou bring'st the ploughman from his plough; Thou bring'st the woodman from his forest: Thou bring'st the wave-worn fisher home With all his scaly wealth around him ; And bid'st the hearth-sick school-boy roam, Freed from the lettered tasks that bound him. Star of declining day, farewell !— Ere lived the Patriarchs thou wast yonder; Ere Isaac, 'mid the piny dell, Went forth at even-tide to ponder; And when to Death's stern mandate bow To shine, and shed thy tears above us. Star that proclaims eternity! "" When o'er the lost sun Twilight weepeth, To prove thy sign of promise true, DAVID MACBETH MOIR. The Dream of Eugene Aram. WAS in the prime of summer time, 'TWAS An evening calm and cool, And four-and-twenty happy boys Came bounding out of school; There were some that ran and some that leapt, Like troutlets in a pool. Away they sped with gamesome minds, And souls untouched by sin; To a level mead they came, and there Like sportive deer they coursed about, But the Usher sat remote from all, His hat was off, his vest apart, To catch heaven's blessed breeze; For a burning thought was in his brow, And his bosom ill at ease; So he leaned his head on his hands, and read The book between his knees! Leaf after leaf he turned it o'er, Nor ever glanced aside; For the peace of his soul he read that book In the golden eventide ; Much study had made him very lean, And pale, and leaden-eyed. |