I HEARD a brooklet gushing From its rocky fountain near, I know not what came o'er me, Is this the way I was going? What do I say of a murmur? That can no murmur be; "T is the water-nymphs, that are singing Their roundelays under me. Let them sing, my friend, 1 t them murmur, And wander merrily near; The wheels of a mill are going In every brooklet clear. SONG OF THE BELL FROM THE GERMAN. BELL! thou soundest merrily, When the bridal party To the church doth hie! Bell! thou soundest solemnly, When, on Sabbath morning, Fields deserted lie! Bell! thou soundest merrily; Parting hath gone by! Say! how canst thou mourn? How canst thou rejoice? Thou art but metal dull! And yet all our sorrowings, And all our rejoicings, Thou dost feel them all! God hath wonders many, Which we cannot fathom, Placed within thy form! When the heart is sinking, Thou alone canst raise it, Trembling in the storm! Danced in sable iron sark, Flowerets, faded, to the ground. To the sumptuous banquet came "Twixt son and daughter all distraught, With mournful mind The ancient King reclined, Gazed at them in silent thought. Pale the children both did look, "Golden wine will make you whole!" The children drank, Gave many a courteous thank : "O, that draught was very cool!" O Land! For all the broken-hearted The mildest herald by our fate allotted, Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand To lead us with a gentle hand To the land of the great Departed, Into the Silent Land! L'ENVOI YE voices, that arose After the Evening's close, And whispered to my restless heart repose! Go, breathe it in the ear Of all who doubt and fear, And say to them, "Be of good cheer!" Ye sounds, so low and calm, That in the groves of balm Seemed to me like an angel's psalm! Go, mingle yet once more Of the pine forest, dark and hoar! Tongues of the dead, not lost, But speaking from death's frost, Like fiery tongues at Pentecost! Glimmer, as funeral lamps, Of the vast plain where Death encamps! "I was a Viking old! "Far in the Northern land, "Oft to his frozen lair Sang from the meadow. "But when I older grew, "Many a wassail-bout Set the cocks crowing, "Once as I told in glee "I wooed the blue-eyed maid, Our vows were plighted. "Bright in her father's hall THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. IT was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white as the hawthorn huds, The skipper he stood beside the helm, And he watched how the veering flaw did blow Then up and spake an old Sailor, "I Had sailed to the Spanish Main, pray thee, put into yonder port, For I fear a hurricane. "Last night, the moon had a golden ring, The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, Colder and louder blew the wind, A gale from the Northeast, The snow fell hissing in the brine, And the billows frothed like yeast. Down came the storm, and smote amain She shuddered and paused, like a frightened steed, "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale That ever wind did blow." He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat He cut a rope from a broken spar, "O father! I hear the church-bells ring, O say, what may it be?" ""T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" And he steered for the open sea. "O father! I hear the sound of guns, O say, what may it be?" "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!" "O father! I see a gleaming light, O say, what may it be?" Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed That saved she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave, On the Lake of Galilee. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, And ever the fitful grsts between A sound came from the land; It was the sound of the trampling surf On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. The breakers were right beneath her bows, She drifted a dreary wreck, And a whooping billow swept the crew She struck where the white and fleecy waves But the cruel rocks, they gored her side |