82

N an age of fops and toys,

IN

Wanting wisdom, void of right,

Who shall move heroic boys

To hazard all in Freedom's fight,— Break sharply off their jolly games, Forsake their comrades gay,

And quit proud homes and youthful dames For famine, toil, and fray?

Yet on the nimble air benign

Speed nimbler messages,

That waft the breath of grace divine

To hearts in sloth and ease.

So nigh is grandeur to our dust,

So near is God to man,

When Duty whispers low, Thou must,

The youth replies, I can.

EMERSON (Voluntaries).

83

Y the rude bridge that arched the flood,

B

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone,

That memory may their deed redeem

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, or leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and Thee.

EMERSON (Concord Monument).

84

HE has gone down!" They shout it from

'S afar,

Kings, Nobles, Priests-all men, of every race,
Whose lagging clogs Time's swift relentless pace:
"She has gone down, our evil-boding star!-
Rebellion smitten with Rebellion's sword,
Anarchy done to death by slavery,
Of Ancient Right insolent enemy-
Beneath a hideous cloud of civil war,

Strife such as heathen slaughterers had abhorred.
The lawless land where no man was called lord,
Spurning all wholesome curb, and dreaming free
Her rabble rule's licentious tyranny,

In the fierce splendor of her arrogant morn, She has gone down-the world's eternal scorn!"

She has gone down! Woe for the world and all The weary workers gazing from afar

At the clear rising of that hopeful star
Star of redemption to each weeping thrall
Of Power decrepit, and of rule outworn;

Beautiful shining of that blessed morn
Which was to bring leave for the poor to live,
To work and rest, to labor and to thrive,
And righteous room for all who nobly strive.
She has gone down! Woe for the panting world
Back on its path of progress sternly hurled !
Land of sufficient harvests for all dearth,
Home of far-seeing hope, Time's latest birth,
Woe for the promised land of the whole earth!

Triumph not, fools, and weep not, ye fainthearted!

Have ye believed that the supreme decree

Of Heaven had given this people o'er to perish?
Have ye believed that God had ceased to cherish
This great New World of Christian liberty?
And its fair light forever had departed?
Nay-by the precious blood shed to redeem
The nation from its selfishness and sin,
By each brave heart that burst in holy strife,
Leaving its kindred hearts to break through life ;
By all the bitter tears whose source must stream
Forever every desolate home within,
We will return to our appointed place,
First in the vanguard of the human race.

KEMBLE (Sonnets on the American War).

OMEGA.

IT is time to be old,
To take in sail :-

The god of bounds,

Who sets to seas a shore,

Came to me in his fatal rounds,

And said: "No more!

No farther shoot

Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.

Fancy departs: no more invent;

Contract thy firmament

To compass of a tent.

There's not enough for this and that,

Make thy option which of two;

Economize the failing river,

None the less revere the Giver,

Leave the many and hold the few,

Timely wise accept the terms,

Soften the fall with wary foot;

A little while

Still plan and smile,

And,-fault of novel germs,―

Mature the unfallen fruit.