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MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

How beautiful this night! The balmiest sigh
Which vernal zephyrs breathe in Evening's ear,
Were discord to the speaking quietude

That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault,
Studded with stars unutterably bright,

Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,
Seems like a canopy which Love had spread

To curtain her sleeping world. Yon gentle hills,
Robed in a garment of untrodden snow;
Yon darksome walls, whence icicles depend

So stainless, that their white and glittering spears
Tinge not the moon's pure beam; yon castled steep,
Whose banner hangeth o'er the time-worn tower

So idly, that wrapt Fancy deemeth it

A metaphor of Peace,-all form a scene.
Where musing Solitude might love to lift
Her soul above this sphere of earthliness;
Where Silence undisturb'd might watch alone,
So cold, so bright, so still.

SHELLEY.

[graphic][subsumed]

GREEN leaves were here;

But 't was the foliage of the rocks-the birch,
The yew, the holly, and the bright green thorn,
With hanging islands of resplendent furze :
And on a summit, distant a short space,
By any who should look beyond the dell,
A single mountain cottage might be seen.

WORDSWORTH.

[graphic]

THEIR groves o' sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon, Where bright beaming summers exalt the perfume;

Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' green bracken,

Wi' the burn stealing under the lang yellow broom. Far dearer to me yon humble broom bowers, Where the bluebell and gowan lurk lowly unseen.

BURNS.

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