Fiction the most impressive teacher of truth and wisdom, and by which, while the intellect is gratified and the imagination roused, the heart, if it retains any sensibility to tender or elevating emotions, cannot fail to be made better.".

PHILADELPHIA, September, 1845.

PRISON AMUSEMENTS.

VERSES TO A ROBIN RED-BREAST,

WHO VISITS THE WINDOW OF MY PRISON EVERY DAY.

WELCOME, pretty little stranger!

Welcome to my lone retreat!
Here, secure from every danger,
Hop about, and chirp, and eat:
Robin! how I envy thee,
Happy child of Liberty!

Now, though tyrant Winter, howling,
Shakes the world with tempests round,
Heaven above with vapours scowling,
Frost imprisons all the ground;-
Robin! what are these to thee?
Thou art blest with liberty.

Though yon fair majestic river*
Mourns in solid icy chains;
Though yon flocks and cattle shiver,

On the desolated plains ;

Robin! thou art gay and free,
Happy in thy liberty.

Hunger never shall distress thee,

While my cates one crumb afford;
Colds nor cramps shall e'er oppress thee;
Come and share my humble board:
Robin! come and live with me,
Live-yet still at liberty.

The Ouse.

19

Soon shall Spring in smiles and blushes
Steal upon the blooming year;
Then, amid the enamour'd bushes,
Thy sweet song shall warble clear;
Then shall I, too, join'd with thee,
Swell the Hymn of Liberty.

Should some rough unfeeling Dobbin,
In this iron-hearted age,

Seize thee on thy nest, my Robin!
And confine thee in a cage,

Feb. 2, 1795.

Then, poor prisoner! think of me,
Think-and sigh for liberty.

MOONLIGHT.

GENTLE Moon! a captive calls;
Gentle Moon! awake, arise;

Gild the prison's sullen walls;

Gild the tears that drown his eyes.

Throw thy veil of clouds aside;

Let those smiles that light the pole
Through the liquid ether glide,-
Glide into the mourner's soul.

Cheer his melancholy mind;

Soothe his sorrows, heal his smart : Let thine influence, pure, refined, Cool the fever of his heart.

Chase despondency and care,

Fiends that haunt the GUILTY breast:

Conscious virtue braves despair;

Triumphs most when most oppress'd.

Now I feel thy power benign

Swell my bosom, thrill my veins;
As thy beams the brightest shine
When the deepest midnight reigns.

Say, fair shepherdess of night!
Who thy starry flock dost lead.
Unto rills of living light,

On the blue ethereal mead;

At this moment, dost thou see,
From thine elevated sphere,
One kind friend who thinks of me,-
Thinks, and drops a feeling tear?

On a brilliant beam convey

This soft whisper to his breast,-
"Wipe that generous drop away;
He for whom it falls is blest.

"Blest with Freedom unconfined,
Dungeons cannot hold the Soul:
Who can chain the immortal Mind?
-None but He who spans the pole."

Fancy, too, the nimble fairy,
With her subtle magic spell,
In romantic visions airy

Steals the captive from his cell.

On her moonlight pinions borne,
Far he flies from grief and pain;
Never, never to be torn

From his friends and home again.

Stay, thou dear delusion! stay;
Beauteous bubble! do not break;
-Ah! the pageant flits away;

-Who from such a dream would wake?

March 7, 1795.

THE CAPTIVE NIGHTINGALE.

NOCTURNAL Silence reigning,
A Nightingale began
In his cold cage complaining
Of cruel-hearted Man:
His drooping pinions shiver'd,
Like wither'd moss so dry;
His heart with anguish quiver'd,
And sorrow dimm'd his eye.

His grief in soothing slumbers
No balmy power could steep;
So sweetly flow'd his numbers,
The music seem'd to weep.
Unfeeling Sons of Folly!

To you the Mourner sung;
While tender melancholy

Inspired his plaintive tongue.

"Now reigns the moon in splendour
Amid the heaven serene;
A thousand stars attend her,
And glitter round their queen:
Sweet hours of inspiration!
When I, the still night long,
Was wont to pour my passion,
And breathe my soul in Song.

"But now, delicious season!
In vain thy charms invite;
Entomb'd in this dire prison,
I sicken at the sight.