Art is long, and Time is fleeting,*

And our hearts, though stout and brave, 15 Still like muffled drums* are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

THE TRAVELLER.—Addison.

JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719) was born in Wiltshire. He was one of the most elegant of our prose-writers, and gained a high reputation by his poems. He became Secretary of State in 1717. Chief works: The Campaign, a poem celebrating Marlborough's victory of Blenheim (1704); essays to the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, on which his fame chiefly rests; and Cato, a tragedy written in 1713.

How are Thy servants blest, O Lord!

How sure is their defence!

Eternal wisdom is their guide,

Their help Omnipotence.

THE INCHCAPE ROCK.*-Southey.

ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774-1843), an eminent English poet, was born at Bristol. He became one of the foremost writers of an age famous for its literary men. He was associated with Wordsworth and Coleridge in the "Lake School" of poetry. Chief poems: Thalaba, an Eastern Tale; Madoc; and The Curse of Kehama.

ΙΟ

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was as still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel* was steady in the ocean.

5 Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

Keel, the bottom of a ship.

Abbot, head of an abbey.

When the rock was hid by the surge's* swell, Surge, the swell of

The mariners* heard the warning bell;

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And then they knew the perilous* rock,

And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok.

The sun in heaven was shining gay,
All things were joyful on that day;

The sea-birds scream'd as they wheel'd around, 20 And there was joyance * in the sound.

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The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen,
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walk'd his deck,*
And he fix'd his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring,
It made him whistle, it made him sing;
His heart was mirthful to excess,
But the Rover's* mirth was wickedness.

*

His eye was on the Inchcape float;
Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat,
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,

And I'll plague * the priest of Aberbrothok.”

the sea.

Mariner, a seaman or sailor.

Perilous, very dangerous, unsafe.

Joyance, joyfulness, gladness.

Deck, the floor or covering of a ship.

Rover, a robber or pirate, a wanderer.

Quoth, said.

Plague, to tease or annoy, to vex.

* The Inchcape, or Bell Rock, is fourteen miles east of the entrance to the Firth of Tay, and is the site of a celebrated lighthouse.

The boat is lower'd, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,

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And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sank the bell with a gurgling * sound,
The bubbles rose and burst around;

Quoth Sir Ralph, “The next who comes to the

So thick a haze * o'erspreads the sky
They cannot see the sun on high ;
The wind hath blown a gale* all day,
At evening it hath died away.

On the deck the Rover takes his stand,
So dark it is they see no land.

Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

"Can'st hear," said one, "the breakers* roar?
For methinks we should be near the shore ;
Now where we are I cannot tell;

But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell."

They hear no sound, the swell* is strong
Though the wind hath fallen, they drift* along,
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock:
Cried they, "It is the Inchcape Rock!"

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LUCY GRAY.-Wordsworth.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850), a great English poet, was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland. He was educated at Cambridge. On the death of Southey in 1843, he was made Poet-Laureate. Chief poems: The Excursion, Lyrical Ballads, White Doe of Rylstone, and a very fine collection of Sonnets.