Open-souled in noon-day sun, so you lie and slumber; And God knows, who sees us twain, child at childish leisure, I am all as tired of pain, as you are of pleasure. Very soon, too, by His grace, gently wrapt around mc, And, in waking presently, brighter to beholder,— This is from the pen of one of the most gifted personages of modern times, MRS. E. BARRETT BROWNING, whose writings have been as warmly welcomed in our country as in England. Her life was one of prolonged bodily suffering, but her rare genius triumphed over all bodily infirmity. It was from her couch of pain that she sent forth those vigorous and beautiful productions that have crowned her as "the world's greatest poetess." After her marriage with the poet Browning, Florence became their home; it was here she died. Among the many favourite poems of this eminent poetess, is that on Sleep: here are two or three of its beautiful stanzas : Of all the thoughts of God that are Along the Psalmist's music deep— Now, tell me if that any is, What would we give to our beloved? The poet's star-tuned harp, to sweep— The monarch's Crown, to light the brows?— "Sleep soft, beloved"-we sometimes say, Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep; Shall break the happy slumber, when His dew drops mutely on the hill; His cloud above it saileth still, Though on its slope men toil and reap! More softly than the dew is shed, Or cloud is floated overhead, "He giveth His beloved sleep." How prophetic of her own history were the closing lines: And friends, dear friends, when it shall be And round my bier ye come to weep; Let one, most loving of ye all, Her fine poem on Cowper is one of the happiest illustrations of her power of pathos: witness these stanzas: Like a sick child, that knoweth not his mother while she blesses, And drops upon his burning brow the coolness of her kisses ; That turns his fevered eyes around-" My mother! where's my mother ?" As if such tender words and looks could come from any other! The fever gone, with leaps of heart he sees her bending o'er him; Her face all pale from watchful love, the unweary love she bore him! Thus woke the poet from the dream his life's long fever gave him, Thus! oh, not thus! no type of earth could image that awaking, Wordsworth and Rogers much admired this stanza, in a poem on Life, by MRS. Barbauld:— Life! we've been long together, Through pleasant and through ́ cloudy weather; Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; Then steal away, give little warning, Choose thine own time, Say not good-night, but in some brighter clime Bid me good-morning. Her beautiful lines, on the Death of the Virtuous, were signally illustrated by her own tranquil decease : Sweet is the scene when Virtue dies! when sinks a righteous soul to rest! How softly beam the closing eyes, how gently heaves the expiring breast! So fades a summer cloud away, so sinks the gale when storms are o'er,— So gently shuts the eye of day, so dies the wave along the shore. Triumphant smiles the victor brow, fanned by some angel's purple wing; Where is, O Grave! thy victory now? and where, insidious Death, thy sting? Here are LOVER's beautiful lines, founded upon the Irish conceit, that when a child smiles in its sleep it is talking with the angels: A baby was sleeping, its mother was weeping, For her husband was far on the wild raging sea; And the tempest was swelling round the fisherman's dwelling, Her beads while she numbered, the baby still slumbered, "And while they are keeping bright watch o'er thy sleeping, And say thou wouldst rather they'd watch o'er thy father, The dawn of the morning saw Dermot returning, And the wife wept for joy her babe's father to see: And closely caressing her child with a blessing, Said, "I knew that the angels were whispering with thee!" Our own poet PEABODY's description of The Backwoodsman is very graphic and picturesque : The silent wilderness for me! where never sound is heard, Alone (how glorious to be free!), my good dog at my side, And now the regal buffalo across the plains I chase— Now track the mountain stream, to find the beaver's lurking-place. My palace, built by God's own hand, the world's fresh prime hath seen, While stretch its living halls away, pillared and roofed with green. And in these solitary haunts, while slumbers every tree STERLING, the friend of Carlyle, who placed a high estimate on his genius, has not left us a large poetic legacy; but here is one of poems, full of music and cheerful philosophy :— his Earth, of man the bounteous mother, feeds him still with corn and wine; He who best would aid a brother, shares with him these gifts divine. Many a power within her bosom, noiseless, hidden, works beneath; Hence are seed, and leaf and blossom, golden ear and clustered wreath. These to swell with strength and beauty is the royal task of man; Man's a king; his throne is duty, since his work on earth began. Bud and harvest, bloom and vintage-these, like man, are fruits of earth; Stamped in clay, a heavenly mintage, all from dust receive their birth. Barn and mill, and wine-vat's treasures, earthly goods for earthly lives, |