The mounds arise where heroes died; The thousands that, uncheered by praise, Where sleep they, Earth? By no proud stone Their narrow couch of rest is known; Of their deep thoughts and lonely prayers. Yet haply all around lie strewed The ashes of that multitude: It may be that each day we tread Where thus devoted hearts have bled; And the young flowers our children sow, Oh, that the many-rustling leaves, Which round our homes the summer weaves, Or that the streams, in whose glad voice Might whisper through the starry sky, To tell where those blest slumberers lie! Would not our inmost hearts be stilled, Yet what if no light footstep there THE HOUR OF PRAYER. "Pregar, pregar, pregar, Ch' altro ponno i mortali al pianger nati?" ALFIERI. CHILD, amidst the flowers at play, Mother, with thine earnest eye, Traveller, in the stranger's land, Warrior, that from battle won Heaven's first star alike ye see- Lift the heart and bend the knee! THE VOICE OF HOME TO THE PRODIGAL. "Von Bäumen, aus Wellen, aus Mauern, OH! when wilt thou return LA MOTTE FOUQUE. To the stillness of the groves? The summer birds are calling Thy household porch around, With sweet laughter in their sound. But when wilt thou return? Oh thou hast wandered long And to thee the leaves' light play But when wilt thou return ?— O'er the image of the sky, But not for evermore. Give back thy heart again To the freedom of the woods, But when wilt thou return? There are young sweet voices borne- Still at thy father's board There is kept a place for thee; And, by thy smile restored, Joy round the hearth shall be. Still hath thy mother's eye, Thy coming step to greet, Tender and gravely sweet. For thee kind bosoms yearn, THE WAKENING. How many thousands are wakening now! And some, far out on the deep mid-sea, And some-oh, well may their hearts rejoice!-- And some, in the camp, to the bugle's breath, Which tells that a field must ere night be won. And some, in the gloomy convict cell, When the bright sun mounts in the laughing sky. And some to the peal of the hunter's horn, So are we roused on this chequered earth : Though fearful or joyous, though sad or sweet, But one must the sound be, and one the call, One! but to severed and distant dooms, How shall the sleepers arise from the tombs ? THE BREEZE FROM SHORE. ['Poetry reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feeling, revives the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the spring-time of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human nature, by vivid delineations of its tenderest and loftiest feelings; and, through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life."-CHANNING.] Joy is upon the lonely seas, When Indian forests pour Forth, to the billow and the breeze, Joy, when the soft air's fanning sigh Oh! welcome are the winds that tell Where, far away, the jasmines dwell, The sailor at the helm they meet, Upspringing, midst the waves, to greet That woo him, from the moaning main, They woo him, whispering lovely tales And fount's bright gleam, in island vales Across his lone ship's wake they bring And, O ye masters of the lay! Yes! o'er the spirit thus they bear Their power is from the brighter clime That in our birth hath part; Their tones are of the world, which time They tell us of the living light In its green places ever bright. They call us, with a voice divine, Our vows of youth at many a shrine, Welcome high thought and holy strain THE DYING IMPROVISATORE,1 "My heart shall be poured over thee-and break." THE spirit of my land, Prophecy of Dante. It visits me once more !-though must die It is, it is thy breath, Which stirs my soul e'en yet, as wavering flame Oh! that love's quenchless power The nightingale is there, The sunbeam's glow, the citron-flower's perfume,` 1 Sestini, the Roman Improvisatore, when on his deathbed at Paris, is sa to have poured forth a Farewell to Italy, in his most impassioned poetry. |