In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, But O! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul! No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. All hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue, hail! “Girt with many a baron bold Sublime their starry fronts they rear; And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old In bearded majesty, appear. In the midst a form divine! Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-Line: 1 What strings symphonious tremble in the air, "The verse adorn again Fierce war, and faithful love, And truth severe by fairy fiction drest. In buskin'd measures move Pale grief, and pleasing pain, With horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. A voice, as of the cherub-choir, Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings lessen on my ear, That lost in long futurity expire. 1 Queen Elizabeth. Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, Raised by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day? To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, And warms the nations with redoubled ray. Enough for me, with joy I see The different doom our fates assign. Be thine despair and sceptred care, To triumph, and to die, are mine." He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night. THOMAS GRAY. ODE WRITTEN IN MDCCXLVI.1 How sleep the Brave who sink to rest By fairy hands their knell is rung, To dwell a weeping hermit there! WILLIAM COLLINS. This was the period of the war between Great Britain and Spain. 2 WILLIAM COLLINS was born in Chichester in 1720, and edutated at Winchester School and Oxford. While still in college ne wrote some of his best poems, the Persian Eclogues. He did not succeed, however, as a literary man, and the effects of his fail. ON A FAVORITE CAT, DROWNED IN A "T'WAS on a lofty vase's side The azure flowers that blow; The pensive Selima, reclined, Her conscious tail her joy declared; Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Still had she gazed; but 'midst the tide The hapless nymph with wonder saw: She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize. What Cat's averse to fish? are and his irregular life brought on a settled melancholy. He travelled on the Continent, but returned only to become the in mate of a lunatic asylum, and died soon after his discharge, in 1756. His life was sad and an apparent failure, but his lyrics hold a high place in English literature Presumptuous maid! with looks intent Eight times emerging from the flood From hence, ye beauties, undeceived, And be with caution bold. Not all that tempts your wandering eyes Nor all, that glisters, gold! THOMAS GRAY. ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A MAD DOG. GOOD people all, of every sort, Give ear unto my song; In Islington there was a man. Of whom the world might say, And in that town a dog was found, Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, This dog and man at first were friends, The dog, to gain some private ends, Around from all the neighboring streets The wound it seem'd both sore and sad And while they swore the dog was mad, But soon a wonder came to light, The man recover'd of the bite, The dog it was that died. OLIVER GOLDSMITH.1 1 OLIVER GOLDSMITH, the son of a clergyman, was born in Longford County, Ireland, in 1728. After such an education as |