THE FIRMAMENT.1 WHEN I survey the bright So rich with jewels hung, that night My soul her wings doth spread, The Almighty's mysteries to read So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name. No unregarded star Into so small a character, Removed far from our human sight, But if we steadfast look, We shall discern In it, as in some holy book, How man may heavenly knowledge learn. BEES.2 Habington. YE musical hounds of the fairy king, Who hunt for the golden dew, Who track for your game the green coverts of spring, With the peal of your elfins crew! (1) These fine lines and the first four especially deserve the epitaph-were written in the early part of the seventeenth century. (2) This little poem presents a new and graceful handling of a trite subject. The first and last stanzas are original and striking. (3) Elfin-from the Anglo-Saxon elf, an elf, fairy. The Anglo-Saxons had their dun, or mountain elves, wood elves, water elves, &c. How joyous your life, if its pleasures ye knew, Ye wander the summer year's paradise through, But unenvied your joys, while the richest you miss, Who would part with his cares for enjoyment like this, MUSIC ON THE WATERS.2 THE foot of music is on the waters, Now it lingers among the billows, Oft she flies, and her steps, though light, And the flood is unstirred as the calm blue ether. (1) The tears, &c.-2. e. the sorrows of earth may be appointed by God as the very means of fixing the affections on heaven. (2) The measure of these lines very aptly illustrates their subject; this is effected by an artful and ingenious intermingling of various metrical feet. The following scheme of the first stanza will exemplify the remark. The - points out the accented syllables. The advancing and receding in the last line are most skilfully represented. (3) Orestes' daughters-It is difficult to say who Orestes' daughters were; probably the Oreades or mountain nymphs are meant. GREECE.1 HE who hath bent him o'er the dead, Have swept the lines where beauty lingers; The rapture of repose that's there, That fires not-wins not-weeps not-now; Where cold obstruction's2 apathy The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon;— The first-last look-by death revealed! 'Tis Greece-but living Greece no more !3 That parts not quite with parting breath, That hue which haunts it to the tomb The (1) There is, perhaps, no instance in our poetical literature in which a continued simile is so beautifully sustained, as that which runs through these lines. affecting picture of the lovely form, no longer animated by the living spirit, deeply touching in itself, derives a new interest from its exquisite adaptation to the subject which suggested it. The music of the rhythm too-so soft, so delicately modulated-floats like a requiem over the whole, and leaves nothing to be desired in consummating the effect. (2) Cold obstruction-This expression is taken from Shakspere, who speaks of the dead as "lying in cold obstruction," in allusion to the stoppage of the animal functions. (3) The following passage, from Gillies' "History of Greece," is thought to have suggested the above comparison:-"The present state of Greece, compared to the ancient, is the silent obscurity of the grave contrasted with the vivid lustre of active life." Expression's last receding ray, A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of feeling past away! Spark of that flame-that flame of heavenly birth— Clime of the unforgotten brave!1 The mountains of their native land! (1) The transition here to another variation of the same theme, by a change of key, as it were, is very striking. The energy of these lines is as remarkable as the pathos of the preceding. 2) Thermopyla, Salamis-An instance of the suggestive power of a name. No description is given of the deeds for which these places were remarkable-the simple mention of them is enough. There points thy Muse to stranger's eye, Byron. THERMOPYLÆ. THEY fell devoted, but undying; The very gale their name seemed sighing; Claimed kindred with their sacred clay; Byron. TO A SKYLARK.1 ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Mount, daring warbler!—that love-prompted strain (1) It is difficult to conceive anything more exquisitely graceful than these lines; the last two especially, and that beginning, "A privacy of," &c., may be characterized as perfect. (2) Yet might'st thou seem, &c.—i. e. yet you mount so high, that you might seem to have lost all connection with earth, and not to be inspired by the genial influences of spring, which prompt the songs of other birds. |