IN Eastern lands they talk in flowers, And they tell in a garland their loves and cares; Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers On its leaves a mystic language bears. The rose is a sign of joy and love Young blushing love in its earliest dawn; And the mildness that suits the gentle dove From the myrtle's snowy flower is drawn. Innocence shines in the lily's bell, Pure as the heart in its native heaven; Fame's bright star and glory's swell In the glossy leaf of the bay are given. The silent, soft, and humble heart, In the violet's hidden sweetness breathes; And the tender soul that cannot part, A twine of evergreen fondly wreathes. The cypress that darkly shades the grave, -Percival. MIRIAM'S SONG. THE POWER OF GOD. MIRIAM'S SONG. SOUND the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea, 123 His chariots and horsemen, all splendid and brave. Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord, Of those she sent forth in the hour of her pride? -Moore. THE POWER OF GOD. THOU art, O God, the life and light Through golden vistas into heaven, When night, with wings of stormy gloom, Where youthful Spring around us breathes, -Moore. LIKE as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, Each changing place with that which goes before Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. -Shakespeare. SONG OF THE DANISH SEA-KING. OUR bark is on the waters deep, our bright blades in our hand, Our birthright is the ocean vast, we scorn the girdled land; And the hollow wind is our music brave, and none can bolder be Than the hoarse-tongued tempest raving o'er a proud and swelling sea! Our bark is dancing on the waves, its tall masts quivering bend Before the gale, which hails us now with the holloa of a friend; And its prow is shearing merrily the up-curled billow's foam, While our hearts with throbbing gladness cheer old ocean as our home. Our eagle-wings of might we stretch before the gallant wind, And we leave the tame and sluggish earth a dim, mean speck behind. We shoot into the untracked deep as earth-freed spirits soar, Like stars of fire through boundless space-through realms without a shore! Lords of this widespread wilderness of waters, we bound free, The haughty elements alone dispute our Sovereignty; No landmark doth our freedom let, for no law of man can mete The sky which arches o'er our head, the waves which kiss our feet! The warrior of the land may back the wild horse in his pride, But a fiercer steed we dauntless breast-the untamed ocean tide; And a nobler tilt our bark careers, as it quells the saucy wave, While the herald storm peals o'er the deep the glories of the brave. Hurrah! hurrah! the wind is up, it bloweth fresh and free, As proudly through the foaming surge the Sea-King bears away. -Motherwell. GOD'S WATCHFUL CARE. THE insect that with puny wing E'en from the glories of His throne Loves one as if that one were all ; -Cunningham. |