Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

Then at fit seasons you may clothe your hook With a sweet bait dressed by a faithless cook; The greedy pike darts to 't with eager haste, And, being struck, in vain he flies at last; He rages, storms and flounces through the stream,

But all, alas! his life cannot redeem.

At other times you may pursue the chase
And hunt the nimble hare from place to place.
See! when the dog is just upon the grip,
Out at a side she'll make a handsome skip,
And ere he can divert his furious course
She far before him scours with all her force;
She'll shift, and many times run the same
ground:

At last, outwearied by the stronger hound,
She falls a sacrifice unto his hate

And with sad piteous screams laments her fate. See how the hawk doth take his towering flight

And in his course outflies our very sight, Bears down the fluttering fowl with all his might.

See how the wary gunner casts about, Watching the fittest posture when to shoot: Quick as the fatal lightning blasts the oak, He gives the springing fowl a sudden stroke ; He pours upon 't a shower of mortal lead,

And ere the noise is heard the fowl is dead. Sometimes he spreads his hidden subtile

snare,

Of which the entangled fowl was not aware; Through pathless wastes he doth pursue his sport,

[blocks in formation]

Where naught but moor-fowl and wild beasts. In face and gesture. In her pangs she died

resort.

When the noon sun directly darts his beams Upon your giddy heads with fiery gleams, Then you may bathe yourself in cooling

streams,

That gave him birth, and ever since the child Had been his father's solace and his care. Every sport

The father shared and heightened. But at length

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

The rigorous law had grasped him and con- To the great gods he breathed a prayer, then demned

To fetters and to darkness.

strove

To calm himself and lose in sleep a while
His useless terrors. But he could not sleep:

The captive's lot His body burned with feverish heat; his

[blocks in formation]

Grew hot at length and thick, but in his Burst forth the lightnings glanced; the air

straw

The boy was sleeping, and the father hoped
The earthquake might pass by, nor would he

wake

From his sound rest the unfearing child, nor tell

[blocks in formation]

A moment as in sunshine, then was dark;
Again a flood of white flame fills the cell,

The dangers of their state. On his low Dying away upon the dazzled eye

couch

The fettered soldier sunk and with deep awe
Listened the fearful sounds; with upturned

eyes

In darkening, quivering tints as stunning
sound

Dies throbbing, ringing in the ear. Silence
And blackest darkness! With intensest awe

The soldier's frame was filled, and many a thought

The deep-driven staple, yells and shrieks with rage.

Of strange foreboding hurried through his But see! the ground is opening; a blue light Mounts, gently waving, noiseless. Thin and

mind

As underneath he felt the fevered earth Jarring and lifting and the massive walls Heard harshly grate and strain; yet knew he not,

While evils undefined and yet to come Glanced through his thoughts, what deep and cureless wound

Fate had already given. Where, man of

woe,

cold

It seems, and like a rainbow tint, not flame;
But by its lustre on the earth outstretched
Behold the child-ah, lifeless!--his dress
singed,

And over his serene face a dark line
Points out the lightning's track.

The father saw,

Where, wretched father, is thy boy? Thou And all his fury fled; a dead calm fell

[blocks in formation]

Came bursting from his ears and from his The ground lifts like a sea: he knows it not;

[blocks in formation]

Once he has touched his garment; how his | All's for the best! Be man but confiding, Providence tenderly governs the rest,

eye

Lightens with love and hope and anxious And the frail bark of his creature is guiding fear! Wisely and warily, all for the best.

Ha! see! he has him now; he clasps him

round,

Kisses his face, puts back the curling locks That shaded his fine brow, looks in his eyes, Grasps in his own those little dimpled hands, Then folds him to his breast, as he was wont To lie when sleeping, and, resigned, awaits Undreaded death.

And death came soon, and swift And pangless. The huge pile sunk down at

once

Into the opening earth. Walls, arches, roof, And deep foundation-stones, all mingling fell.

A

EDWIN ATHERSTONE.

ALL'S FOR THE BEST.

All's for the best! Then fling away terrors; Meet all your fears and your foes in the

van,

And in the midst of your dangers or errors Trust like a child, while you strive like a

man.

All's for the best! Unbiased, unbounded, Providence reigns from the east to the west,

And, by both wisdom and mercy surrounded, Hope and be happy that all's for the best.

MARTIN F. TUPPER.

MY FATHER.

AS die the embers on the hearth,

And o'er the floor the shadows fall,

LL'S for the best! Be sanguine and And creeps the chirping cricket forth,

cheerful:

Trouble and sorrow are friends in disguise; Nothing but folly goes faithless and fearful; Courage for ever is happy and wise.

All's for the best, if man would but know it;

Providence wishes us all to be blest; There is no dream of the pundit or poet; Heaven is gracious, and all's for the best.

And ticks the deathwatch in the wall, I see a form in yonder chair

That grows beneath the waning light: There are the wan, sad features-there The pallid brow and locks of white.

My father, when they laid thee down,
And heaped the clay upon thy breast,
And left thee sleeping all alone
Upon thy narrow couch of rest-

All's for the best! Set this in your stan- I know not why-I could not weep:

dard,

Soldier of sadness or pilgrim of love

Who to the shores of despair may have wan

dered,

The soothing drops refused to roll; And oh, that grief is wild and deep Which settles tearless on the soul.

A way-wearied swallow or heart-stricken But when I saw thy vacant chair,

dove.

Thine idle hat upon the wall,

« ForrigeFortsett »