For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind ?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who, mindful of the unhonored dead,
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate,
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say:
“Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn;

“ There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, That wreathes its old, fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noontide would he stretch, And pore upon

the brook that babbles by.

“Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
Muttering his wayward fancies, he would rove;
Now drooping, woful wan, like one forlorn,
Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.

“ One morn I missed him on the customed hill, Along the heath, and near his favorite tree;

Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor

up the lawn, nor at the wood was he ;

“ The next, with dirges due, in sad array,
Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.”

THE EPITAPH

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth
A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown:
Fair science frowned not on his humble birth,
And melancholy marked him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send :
He gave to misery (all he had) a tear;
He gained from heaven ('t was all he wished) a

friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.

Thomas Gray.

BUGLE SONG

THE splendor falls on castle walls,

And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

Oh hark, oh, hear ! how thin and clear,

And thinner, clearer, farther going ! Oh, sweet and far, from cliff and scar,

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing ! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying : Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

Oh, love, they die in yon rich sky,

They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And
grow

forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

Alfred Tennyson.

ALLEN-A-DALE

ALLEN-A-DALE has no fagot for burning,
Allen-a-Dale has no furrow for turning,
Allen-a-Dale has no fleece for the spinning,
Yet Allen-a-Dale has red gold for the winning.
Come, read me my

riddle ! come, hearken And tell me the craft of bold Allen-a-Dale.

my tale!

The Baron of Ravensworth prances in pride,
And he views his domains

Arkindale side, The mere for his net, and the land for his game, The chase for the wild, and the park for the tame ; Yet the fish of the lake, and the deer of the vale, Are less free to Lord Dacre than Allen-a-Dale !

a

Allen-a-Dale was ne'er belted a knight,
Though his spur be as sharp, and his blade be as

bright:
Illen-a-Dale is no baron or lord,
Yet twenty tall yeomen will draw at his word ;
And the best of our nobles his bonnet will veil
Who at Rere-cross on Stanmore meets Allen-a-Dale.

Allen-a-Dale to his wooing is come ; The mother, she asked of his household and home : * Though the castle of Richmond stand fair on the

hill, My hall,” quoth bold Allen, "shows gallanter still ; 'T is the blue vault of heaven, with its crescent so

pale, And with all its bright spangles," said Allen-a-Dale.

:

The father was steel, and the mother was stone; They lifted the latch, and they bade him be gone ; But loud, on the morrow,

their wail and their

cry: He had laughed on the lass with his bonny black

eye ; And she fled to the forest to hear a love-tale, And the youth it was told by was Allen-a-Dale !

Sir Walter Scott.

a

BALLAD

SHE's up and gone, the graceless girl!

And robbed my failing years ;
My blood before was thin and cold,

But now 't is turned to tears.

My shadow falls upon my grave,

So near the brink I stand :
She might have stayed a little yet,

And led me by the hand.

Ay, call her on the barren moor,

And call her on the hill; 'Tis nothing but the heron's cry,

, And plover's answer shrill. My child is flown on wilder wings

Than they have ever spread, And I may even walk a waste

That widened when she fled.

Full many a thankless child has beer,

But never one like mine ;
Her meat was served on plates of gold,

Her drink was rosy wine.
But now she 'll share the robin's food,
And
sup

the common rill, Before her feet will turn again To meet her father's will !

Thomas Hood.

THE LAST LEAF

I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,

And again
The pavement stones resound
As he totters o'er the ground

With his cane.