I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon; To whom the better elements and kindly stars have given A form so fair, that, like the air, 'tis less of earth than heaven. Her health and would on earth there stood some more of such a frame, That life might be all poetry, and weariness a name ! CUTTER, one of the poets of the West, is the author of this striking poem, entitled The Song of Steam : Harness me down with your iron bands, Be sure of your curb and rein, For I scorn the power of your puny hands, How I laughed, as I lay concealed from sight At the childish boast of human might, When I saw an army upon the land, A navy upon the seas, Or waiting the wayward breeze; With the toil which he daily bore, Or tugged at the weary oar; When I measured the panting courser's speed, The flight of the carrier-dove, As they bore the law a king decreed, I could but think how the world would feel, When I should be bound to the rushing keel, Ha, ha, ha! they found me at last, They invited me forth at length; And I rushed to my throne with a thunder-blast, And laughed in my iron strength. The following graceful little melody is from the pen of GEORGE D. PRENTICE :— In Southern seas there is an isle, Where earth and sky forever smile; Where storms cast not their sombre hue Upon the welkin's holy blue; Where clouds of blessed incense rise From myriad flowers of myriad dves, And strange bright birds glance through the bowers, Like mingled stars, or mingled flowers. Oh, dear one! would it were our lot To dwell upon that lovely spot, To stray through woods with blossoms starred, Bright as the dreams of seer or bard; To hear each other's whispered words And deem our lives, in those bright bowers, These pleasing lines, on Olden Memories, are by CIST, of Cincinnati : They are jewels of the mind; they are tendrils of the heart, In our days of mirth and gladness, we may spurn their faint control, But they come, in hours of sadness, like sweet music, to the soul: And in sorrow, o'er us stealing with their gentleness and calm, They are leaves of precious healing, they are fruits of choicest balm. Ever till, when life departs, death from dross the spirit frees, Cherish in thine heart of hearts, all thine olden memories. Now let us in imagination turn our gaze towards the magnificent spectacle of an iceberg, which our American bard, BUCHANAN READ, so well portrays :— A fearless shape of brave device, our vessel drives through mist and rain, Between the floating fleets of ice-the navies of the northern main. These Arctic ventures, blindly hurled, the proofs of Nature's olden force, Like fragments of a crystal world long shattered from its skyey course. These are the buccaneers that fright the middle sea with dream of wrecks, And freeze the south winds in their flight, and chain the Gulf-stream to their decks. At every dragon prow and helm there stands some Viking as of yore; Grim heroes from the boreal realm where Odin rules the spectral shore. And oft beneath the sun or moon their swift and eager falchions glow, While, like a storm-vexed wind, the rune comes chafing through some beard of snow. And when the far North flashes up with fires of mingled red and gold, They know that many a blazing cup is brimming to the absent bold. Up signal there, and let us hail von looming phantom as we pass! Note all her fashion, hull and sail, within the compass of your glass. See at her mast the steadfast glow of that one star of Odin's throne; Up with our flag, and let us show the Constellation on our own. No answer, but the sullen flow of ocean heaving long and vast; Very sweet and refreshing are his liquid lines to the Wayside Spring: Fair dweller by the dusty way-bright saint within a mossy shrine, The earliest blossoms of the year, the sweet-brier and the violet, * And oft the beggar, masked with tan, in rusty garments, gray with dust, Here sits and dips his little can, and breaks his scanty crust; And, lulled beside thy whispering stream, oft drops to slumber unawares, And sees the angel of his dream upon celestial stairs. Dear dweller by the dusty way, thou saint within a mossy shrine, The tribute of a heart to-day, weary and worn, is thine! The following exquisite lines are from the same source: She came, as comes the summer wind, a gust of beauty to my heart; Or like the sudden April bow that spans the violet-waking rain, again, For sweeter than all things most sweet, and fairer than all things most fair, She came, and passed with footsteps fleet, a shining wonder in the air! |