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With many tears-and closed without a cloud.
They set as sets the morning star, which goes
Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides
Obscured among the tempests of the sky,
But melts away into the light of heaven.1

Pollok.

VENI CREATOR.2

CREATOR Spirit! by whose aid
The world's foundations first were laid,
Come visit every pious mind;

Come pour thy joys on human kind;
From sin and sorrow set us free,
And make thy temples3 worthy thee.
O source of uncreated light,
The Father's promised Paraclete! 4
Thrice holy fount, thrice holy fire,
Our hearts with heavenly love inspire;
Come, and thy sacred unction bring,
To sanctify us while we sing.

Plenteous of grace descend from high,

Rich in thy sevenfold energy!

Thou strength of his almighty hand,

Whose power does heaven and earth command!
Proceeding Spirit, our defence,

5

Who dost the gift of tongues dispense,
And crown'st thy gift with eloquence,

(1) The comparison of the eye, whose brightness melted, as it were, into the light of an eternal day, to the morning star, is very beautiful, and it is clothed in most felicitous language. A similar thought occurs in Montgomery's poem entitled "Friends;" speaking of friends as stars that pass away as the morning advances, he says (see p. 215) :—

"Nor sink those stars in empty night,

They hide themselves in heaven's own light."

Hide themselves in light!—a very striking and picturesque expression.

(2) Veni Creator-" Come, Creator," the first two words of a Latin hymn used in the Roman Catholic church.

(3) Temples " Know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.?" 1 Cor. iii. 16.

(4) Paraclete the Greek word for "Comforter."

(5) "The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father."

John xv. 26.

Refine and purge our earthly parts;
But, oh! inflame and fire our hearts;
Our frailties help, our vice control,
Submit the senses to the soul;
And when rebellious they are grown,
Then lay thy hand, and hold them down.

Chase from our minds the infernal foe,
And peace, the fruit of love, bestow;
And, lest our feet should step astray,
Protect and guide us in the way.

Make us eternal1 truths receive,
And practise all that we believe:
Give us thyself, that we may see
The Father, and the Son, by thee.

Immortal' honour, endless' fame,
Attend the Almighty Father's name :
The Saviour Son be glorified,
Who for lost man's redemption died:
And equal adoration be,
Eternal Paraclete, to thee!

Dryden.

THE POPLARS.

THE poplars are felled ;-farewell to the shade,
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade;2
The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse3 on its bosom their image receives.

(1) Eternal, immortal, endless, everlasting, all convey the idea of perpetual existence-they differ in the modification of that idea. That is eternal which always is, and cannot cease to be; immortal, which always lives, which can never die; endless, which has no termination; everlasting, which has neither interruption nor termination. These words are very appropriately employed in the phrases "eternal truths," "immortal honour" (a figurative expression, since honour is not a living being), "endless fame," i. e. glory without end, “everlasting happiness."

(2) Colonnade-an architectural term designating a range of columns; here ngeniously applied to trees regularly disposed like pillars.

(3) Ouse-the Great Ouse in Buckinghamshire.

Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view
Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew:
And now in the grass behold they are laid,

And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat,

Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat;
And the scene where his melody charmed me before,
Resounds with the sweet-flowing ditty no more.
My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they,
With a turf on my breast, and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.
The change both my heart and my fancy employs;
I reflect on the frailty of man and his joys;
Short-lived as we are, yet our pleasures, we see,
Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we.

Cowper.

TO THE WEATHERCOCK.1

THE dawn has broke, the morn is up,
Another day begun,

And there thy poised and gilded spear
Is flashing in the sun,

Upon that steep and lofty tower

Where thou thy watch2 hast kept,

A true and faithful sentinel,

While all around thee slept.

For years upon thee there has poured
The summer's noon-day heat,

And through the long, dark, starless night,

The winter storms have beat;

(1) The good sense of these lines, and the originality with which a trite subject is treated, are more conspicuous than their strictly poetical merits. The style in some parts is almost prosaic, and the rhymes are occasionally incorrect, but the poem is nevertheless on the whole well worthy of preservation. It is the production of an American poet.

(2) Watch-originally identical with wake, as ditch with dike or dyke. In Wycliffe's Testament we have "Wake ye and preie," &c., for "Watch ye and pray," &c. Mark xiv. 38. To watch, therefore, is to keep awake-to observe; hence the meaning of the noun is obvious.

But yet thy duty has been done,
By day and night the same;

Still thou hast watched and met the storm,
Whichever way it came.

No chilling blast in wrath has swept

Along the distant heaven,

But thou hast watch upon it kept,

And instant warning given;

And when Midsummer's sultry beams

Oppress all living things,

Thou dost announce each breeze that comes
With health upon its wings.

How oft I've seen at early dawn,
Or twilight's quiet hour,
The swallows, in their joyous glee,
Come darting round thy tower,
As if, with thee, to hail the sun,
And catch his earliest light,
And offer ye the morn's salute,
Or bid ye both-good night.
And when around thee, or above,
No breath of air has stirred,
Thou seem'st to watch the circling flight
Of each free happy bird;

Till, after twittering round thy head,

In many a mazy track,

The whole delighted company

Have settled on thy back.

Then, if perchance amid their mirth

A gentle breeze has

sprung,

And, prompt to mark its first approach,
Thy eager form has swung,

I've thought I almost heard thee say,
As far aloft they flew,

"Now all away!-here ends our play,
For I have work to do!"

Men slander thee, my honest friend,
And call thee, in their pride,

An emblem of their fickleness,
Thou ever faithful guide!

(1) Twilight-from the Anglo-Saxon tweonliht, doubtful light.

Each weak, unstable human mind
A "weathercock" they call:
And thus, unthinkingly, mankind
Abuse thee, one and all.

They have no right to make thy name
A by-word for their deeds:

They change their friends, their principles,

Their fashions and their creeds;

While thou hast ne'er, like them, been known
Thus causelessly to range,

But when thou changest sides, canst give
Good reason for the change.

Thou, like some lofty soul, whose course
The thoughtless oft condemn,
Art touched by many airs from heaven
Which never breathe on them;
And moved by many impulses

Which they can never know,

Who, round their earth-bound circles, plod
The dusty paths below.

Through one more dark and cheerless night
Thou well hast kept thy trust,

And now in glory o'er thy head
The morning light has burst:

And unto earth's true watcher' thus,
When his dark hours have passed,

Will come the "day-spring2 from on high,"
To cheer his path at last.

Bright symbol of fidelity,

Still may I think of thee;

And may the lesson thou dost teach

Be never lost on me :

But still in sunshine or in storm,

Whatever task is mine,

May I be faithful to my trust,

As thou hast been to thine.

A. G. Greene.

(1) Earth's true watcher-one who faithfully watches on earth; an allusion probably to the precept of our Saviour, "Watch ye, therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh." Mark xiii. 35.

(2) Day-spring-the springing or rising of day-the dawn; figuratively employed here to denote the dawn of a heavenly day, which, after the dark hours of his life, will burst on the view of the faithful watcher, i. e. the true Christian.

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