And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain; And sovereign law, that state's collected will, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. The fiend, Dissension, like a vapor sinks; Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks; Than Lesbos fairer and the Cretan shore! No more shall freedom smile? Shall Britons languish, and be men no more? Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave 'Tis folly to decline, And steal inglorious to the silent grave. SIR WILLIAM JONES. To the Cuckoo. HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove! Thou messenger of Spring! Now heaven repairs thy rural seat, Soon as the daisy decks the green, Delightful visitant! with thee I hail the time of flowers, The school-boy, wandering through the wood Starts, thy most curious voice to hear, What time the pea puts on the bloom, An annual guest in other lands, Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year! Oh, could I fly, I'd fly with thee! JOHN LOGAN. Auld Robin Gray. WHEN the sheep are in the fauld, and a' the kye at hame, And a' the weary warld to sleep are gane, The waes o' my heart fall in showers from my e'e, While my gudeman sleeps sound by me. Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride, But saving a crown he had naithing else beside: To mak' the crown a pound, my Jamie went to sea, And the crown and the pound were baith for me. He had nae been gane a year and a day, When my faither brake his arm, and our cow was stole away; My mither she fell sick, and Jamie at the sea, And auld Robin Gray cam' a courting to me. My faither could na wark, my mither could na spin, My heart it said nay, for I look'd for Jamie back, But the wind it blew hard, and the ship was a wrack— The ship was a wrack, why did na Jamie dee? Or why was I spared to cry, Wae's me! My faither urged me sair, my mither did na speak, But she look'd in my face till my heart was like to break: They gi'ed him my hand, though my heart was at sea,— So auld Robin Gray is gudeman to me! I had na been a wife a week but only four, I saw my Jamie's wraith, for I could na think it he, Sair, sair did we greet, and mickle did we say,— I wish I were dead, but I am na lik' to dee,- I gang like a ghaist, but I care not to spin; I dare not think on Jamie, for that would be a sin; So I will do my best a gude wife to be, For auld Robin Gray is kind unto me. LADY ANNE BARNARD. Mary's Dream. THE moon had climbed the highest hill And from the eastern summit shed Her silver light on tower and tree, When Mary laid her down to sleep, Her thoughts on Sandy far at sea, She from her pillow gently raised Her head, to ask who there might be, It lies beneath a stormy sea. 'Three stormy nights and stormy days The storm is past, and I at rest; So, Mary, weep no more for me! "O maiden dear, thyself prepare; We soon shall meet upon that shore, What is Time? JOHN LOWE. I ASKED an aged man, with hoary hairs, "Time is the warp of life," said he; “O, tell Sages who wrote, and warriors who bled: From the cold grave a hollow murmur flowed, "Time sowed the seed we reap in this abode!" I asked a dying sinner, ere the tide Of life had left his veins: "Time!" he replied; I asked the Seasons, in their annual round, That pierced my soul! I shudder while I speak. I asked old Father Time himself at last; His chariot was a cloud, the viewless wind |