The night-storm on a thousand hills is loud;

And the strong wind of day doth mingle sea and cloud.

On thine unaltering blaze

The half-wreck'd mariner, his compass lost,

Fixes his steady gaze,

And steers undoubting to the friendly coast;

And they who stray in perilous wastes by night

Are glad when thou dost shine to guide their footsteps right.

And therefore bards of old,

Sages, and hermits of the solemn wood,

Did in thy beams behold

A beauteous type of that Unchanging Good,

That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray

The voyager of Time should shape his heedful way.

THE THIRd of noVEMBER.

1861.

Softly breathes the West wind beside the ruddy forest, Taking leaf by leaf from the branches where he flies ; Sweetly streams the sunshine this third day of November, Through the golden haze of the quiet autumn skies.

Tenderly the season has spared the grassy meadows, Spared the petted flowers that the old world gave the new : Spared the autumn rose and the garden's group of pansies, Late-blown dandelions and periwinkles blue.

On my cornice linger the ripe black grapes ungather'd;
Children fill the groves with the echoes of their glee,
Gathering tawny chestnuts, and shouting when beside them
Drops the heavy fruit of the tall black-walnut tree.

Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson,
Yet our full-leaved willows are in their freshest green :
Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing
With the growths of summer, I never yet have seen.

Like this kindly season may life's decline come o'er me!
Pass'd is manhood's summer, the frosty months are here:
Yet be genial airs and a pleasant sunshine left me,
Leaf and fruit and blossom, to mark the closing year!

Dreary is the time when the flowers of earth are wither'd ;
Dreary is the time when the woodland leaves are cast,
When upon the hillside, all harden'd into iron,
Howling like a wolf flies the famish'd Northern blast.

Dreary are the years when the eye can look no longer
With delight on Nature or hope on human kind :
O, may those that whiten my temples, as they pass me,
Leave the heart unfrozen and spare the cheerful mind.

THOMAS CARLYLE.

1795-1881.

ADIEU!

Let Time and Chance combine, combine!

Let Time and Chance combine!

The fairest love from heaven above,

That love of yours, was mine,

My Dear!

That love of yours was mine.

The Past is fled and gone, and gone :

The Past is fled and gone :

If nought but pain to me remain,

I'll fare in memory on,

I'll fare in memory on.

My dear!

The saddest tears must fall, must fall :

The saddest tears must fall:

In weal or woe, in this world below,

I love you ever and all,

My Dear!

I love you ever and all.

A long road full of pain, of pain :

A long road full of pain :

One soul, one heart, sworn ne'er to part,—

We ne'er can meet again,

My Dear!

We ne'er can meet again.

Hard fate will not allow, allow;

Hard fate will not allow :

We blessed were as the angels are :

Adieu for ever now,

My Dear!

Adieu for ever now!

JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS.

1794-1852.

HOUR AFTER HOUR.

Hour after hour departs,

Recklessly flying;

The golden time of our hearts

Is fast a-dying:

O, how soon it will have faded!

Joy droops, with forehead shaded;
And Memory starts.

When I am gone, O wear

Sweet smiles! thy dwelling
Choose where flowers feed the air,
And the sea is swelling!

And near where some rivulet lingers
In the grass, like an infant's fingers
In its mother's hair.

Thy spirit should steep its wing
In the dews of Nature;

And the living airs of Spring

Should give each feature

Of thy face a rich lustrous smiling,—

Thy thoughts from that gloom beguiling
Which cold hours bring.

Farewell to our delights!
Love! we are parted.
Come with thy silvery nights,
Autumn, gold-hearted!

Let our two hearts be wreathing
Their hopes when the eve is breathing
Through leaf-starr'd lights!

SONG.

Go where the water glideth gently ever,
Glideth by meadows that the greenest be;
Go, listen to our own beloved river :

And think of me!

Wander in forests where the small flower layeth Its fairy gem beside the giant tree; Listen the dim brook pining while it playeth : And think of me!

Watch when the sky is silver pale at even,
And the wind grieveth in the lonely tree;

Go out beneath the solitary heaven :
And think of me!

And when the moon riseth as she were dreaming,
And treadeth with white feet the lulled sea,
Go, silent as a star beneath her beaming,
And think of me!

SHERWOOD FOREST.

The trees in Sherwood Forest are old and good, The grass beneath them now is dimly green : Are they deserted all? Is no young mien,

With loose-slung bugle, met within the wood?
No arrow found, foil'd of its antler'd food,

Stuck in the oak's rude side? Is there nought seen
To mark the revelries which there have been,
In the sweet days of merry Robin Hood?
Go there, with summer and with evening, go
In the soft shadows, like some wandering man !
And thou shalt far amid the forest know
The archer men in green, with belt and bow,
Feasting on pheasant, river-fowl and swan,
With Robin at their head, and Marian.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

1796-1849.

SONG.

She is not fair to outward view

As many maidens be;
Her loveliness I never knew

Until she smiled on me :
O then I saw her eye was bright,
A well of love, a spring of light.

But now her looks are coy and cold,
To mine they ne'er reply;
And yet I cease not to behold
The love-light in her eye:

Her very frowns are fairer far

Than smiles of other maidens are.

WHITHER?

Whither is gone the wisdom and the power
That ancient sages scatter'd with the notes
Of thought-suggesting lyres? The music floats
In the void air; even at this breathing hour,
In every cell and every blooming bower