CCCL. GERALD GRIFFIN, 1803-1840. ADARE. Oh, sweet Adare! oh, lovely vale! E'er hailed a scene more softly tender. With odour of the harebell taken. Thou rising sun, how richly gleams Thy smile from far Knockfierna's mountain, O'er waving woods and bounding streams, And many a grove and glancing fountain. In sweet Adare, the jocund spring His notes of odorous joy is breathing, The wild bird in the woodland sing, The wildflowers in the vale are breathing. There winds the Mague, as silver clear, Among the elms so sweetly flowing, There fragrant in the early year, While roses on the bank are blowing. Or dives beneath the glistening billow, And sweet along the echoing vale The sound of vernal joy is swelling. CCCLI. SIR EDWARD EARLE LYTTON BULWER LYTTON, 1803 TALENT AND GENIUS. Talent convinces-Genius but excites; Talent from sober judgment takes its birth, On cloud itself reflects its wondrous dyes : Leaves its large truths a riddle to the dull— CCCLII. REV. JO. MOULTRIE, 1804 DR MERLIN AND KING ARTHUR. He [Merlin] was admitted sans delay, Though the whole palace was in sad confusion; Through crowds of gaping courtiers he made way To where the king, with dressing gown and shoes on, Was gravely wasting, in great pomp, away; He bowed and said he "hoped 'twas no intrusion, Though for so many months he had been absent— But a little vision, by his sister Mab sent, Had told him that his majesty was ill; So he had come directly from Caer-Mardin, To offer the assistance of his skill, For (though he said it) there was nought so hard in The power of blister, bolus, draught or pill, But he could cure it-and not charge a farthing. He begged the monarch would put out his tongueHow long had this disorder on him hung? What was his diet ?-did he sleep at night? His pulse seemed languid-how did he digest Had he retained his usual appetite ? Pray, did he feel a tightness at his chest ?- He thought 'twas want of exercise-he'd write A short prescription, which to him seemed best."This fragment of it 's extant-the style's eligible. And (like all doctors' Latin) quite intelligible. "Rex Arturus, diabolis cæruleis "Eger, ob desiderium Gigantum "Decollatorum in Calendis Juliis, "Sal matrimon. quotidie capiat quantum "Suff. et conjugialibus aculeis (Versus desideratur-unus tantum) "Haustu matut. merid. et vespertino Rix. pulv. pil.-Fiat-auct. M.D. Merlino." The meaning of the document is plain- CCCLIII. THOMAS K. HERVEY, 1804- LIFE. 'Tis thus with our life: while it passes along, With streamers afloat, and with canvas unfurled; Yet chartered by sorrow, and freighted with sighs: As the smiles we put on, just to cover our tears; And the withering thoughts that the world cannot know, Like heart-broken exiles, lie burning below; Whilst the vessel drives on to that desolate shore, Where the dreams of our childhood are vanish'd and o'er. CCCLIV. WILL. SEWELL, 1804- MAN. Lo, as in some dark time-worn pile, At evening's close, 'tis good to sit, O'er moss-grown arch, and broken aisle, A twilight softness, faint and wan. And strains of peace midst tempests wild. CCCLV. HENRY TAYLOR, 1805-- Delighted was the child to call The plot of garden ground her own; Of evening mild, when shadows tall To linger there alone. Nor seem'd the garden flowers less fair, When glisten'd in the morning dew Each lip of red and eye of blue; And when the sun too brightly burned And in the skirts thereof a bower Was built with many a creeping flower, And pleasant therefore all day long, The whirlwind came with fire and flood The morning broke, the child awoke, Disposed, and stuck them in the mound, That other child, beneath whose zone Where love had grown, which love had graced 2. GREAT MEN. The world knows nothing of its greatest men. |