Beat faint. They went; and o'er his eyes
A gathering film beclouded light;

And music murmured in his brain,
Such respite sang from toil and strain
That all his senses, wearied quite,

Were lapped to slumber, lulling pain; Whilst soothing visions seemed to rise, That brought him scenes of other times, With cherub faces, beaming bright,

Of many children, and the rhymes
His mother taught him on her knee,
In happy days of infancy.

Then gentlest forms, with rustling wings,
Were wafting him a world of ease
Beneath those downy canopies,
Wherewith they shut out angry skies;
And they with winning beckonings-
Who looked so sweet and saintly wise —
His buoyant spirit drew afar

From creaking timbers, shivering sails,
And ships that strain in autumn gales,
And snow-mixed rains, and sleeting hails,
And wind and waves at endless war.
Oh! who will e'er forget the day,

The bitter tears, the voiceless prayer,
The thoughts of grief we could not say,
The shallow graves within the bay,

The fifteen dear ones buried there,

The grown, the young, who, side by side,

Without or coffin, shroud, or priest,

Were laid; and him we mourned not least, The boy that had so bravely died!

THE BEGGAR MAID.

TER arms across her breast she laid;

She was more fair than words can say;
Barefooted came the beggar maid
Before the king Cophetua.

In robe and crown the king stept down
To meet and greet her on her way.
"It is no wonder," said the lords,

"She is more beautiful than day."

As shines the moon in clouded skies,
She in her poor attire was seen;
One praised her ankles, one her eyes,
One her dark hair and lovesome mien.

So sweet a face, such angel grace,

In all that land had never been.

Cophetua sware a royal oath,

"This beggar maid shall be my queen."