Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud, ROBERT SOUTHEY. (1774-1843.) In BORN in Bristol, where his father was a linen-draper, and educated at Westminster and Balliol College, Oxford. After quitting Oxford, he associated much with Coleridge and a young Bristol quaker, named Lovell, and the three young men married three sisters. In their enthusiasm, Southey, Coleridge, and Lovell had formed a plan to go out together to the wilds of North America, and set up what they called a Pantisocrasy, in which they were to return to the patriarchal mode of life. This scheme, however, they never attempted to carry into effect. the early part of the present century Southey settled at Greta, near Keswick, where he continued to reside till his death. In 1813, was appointed Poet Laureate, and in 1835, a pension of £300 a year was bestowed upon him by the Government of Sir Robert Peel. Died in 1843, and was buried in Crosthwaite churchyard, where had been already interred his first wife and some of his children. Southey's chief poetical works are :Thalaba the Destroyer; The Curse of Kehama; Joan of Arc; The Vision of Judgment, and numerous ballads and minor pieces. THE OLD MAN'S COMFORTS, AND HOW HE GAINED THEM. "You are old, Father William," the young man cried,* "The few locks which are left you are grey; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man, "In the days of my youth," Father William replied, "I remembered that youth would fly fast; And abused not my health and my vigour at first, "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "And pleasures with you pass away, And yet you lament not the days that are gone : Now tell me the reason, I pray." "In the days of my youth," Father William replied, "I remembered that youth could not last; I thought of the future, whatever I did, That I never might grieve for the past." "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "And life must be hastening away; You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death, Now tell me the reason, I pray." “I am cheerful, young man," Father William replied, "Let the cause thy attention engage : In the days of my youth I remembered my God, THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. It was a summer evening, Old Kaspar's work was done ; And by him sported on the green She saw her brother Peterkin Roll something large and round, In playing there, had found; H Old Kaspar took it from the boy, And then the old man shook his head, "'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he, "Who fell in the great victory. I find them in the garden, for "Now tell us what 'twas all about," "It was the English," Kaspar cried, My father lived at Blenheim then, They burnt his dwelling to the ground, So with his wife and child he fled, Nor had he where to rest his head. With fire and sword the country round And many a childing mother then, But things like that, you know, must be They say it was a shocking sight After the field was won ; For many thousand bodies here Lay rotting in the sun; But things like that, you know, must be Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won And everybody praised the Duke "But what good came of it at last?". 66 Why that I cannot tell," said he ; "But 'twas a famous victory." THE INCHCAPE ROCK. No stir on the air, no swell on the sea, With neither sign nor sound of shock, The pious abbot of Aberbrothock Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock; On the waves of the storm it floated and swung, And louder and louder its warning rung. When the rock was hid by the tempest swell, The float of the Inchcape Bell was seen, His eye was on the bell and float,- The boat is lowered, the boatmen row, Down sunk the bell with a gurgling sound; Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away; So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky, "Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar? For yonder methinks should be the shore. Now, where we are, I cannot tell, I wish we heard the Inchcape Bell." |