toward inferior or undeveloped minds. She wrote but little poetry; but what she wrote is marked by the idiosyncrasies of an independent thinker. She published "Summer on the Lakes" (1843), "At Home and Abroad " (1846), and several minor works. She lacked personal attractions, but in spite of this defect won the admiration of some of the most gifted of her contemporaries. SONNETS. I. ORPHEUS. Each Orpheus must to the depths descend, Again his love must lose through too much love, II. BEETHOVEN. Most intellectual master of the art, Which, best of all, teaches the mind of man The past is all forgot-hopes sweetly breathe, ON LEAVING THE WEST. Farewell, ye soft and sumptuous solitudes! I go-and if I never more may steep Yet ever to itself that heart may say, Be not exacting--thou hast lived one day Hast looked on that which matches with thy mood, In other worlds I will not cease to tell James Freeman Clarke. AMERICAN. Clarke was born in 1810, in Hanover, N. H., where his parents, residents of Boston, were accidentally on a visit. He graduated at Harvard College in 1829, and at the Cambridge Divinity School in 1833. He was pastor of a Society in Louisville, Ky., from 1833 to 1840. He then returned to Boston, where he became highly popular as a preacher. He is the author of several volumes of sermons, which have had a wide circulation. He has written original poems of high merit as well as translations, very happily executed. On his seventieth birthday (April 4, 1880), in reckoning up the personal friends to whom he had been intellectually indebted, Mr. Clarke remarked: "I am especially thankful to Margaret Fuller. From her I learned the power that is in us all, the mighty powers of the human soul. She roused me to the value of life; she taught me how to live for an end, and a good one." See the poem by Holmes (page 655) on Clarke's birthday. PRAYER OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. WRITTEN IN HER BOOK OF DEVOTIONS JUST BEFORE HER EXECUTION. "O Domine Deus! speravi in te; O care mi Jesu! nunc libera me. In dura catena, in misera pœnâ, Desidero te. Languendo, gemendo, et genuflectendo, Oh Master and Maker! my hope is in thee. Thus moaning, and groaning, and bending the knee, I adore, and implore that thou liberate me. THE PERFECT WHOLE. AFTER THE GERMAN OF GEIBEL. Live in that Whole to which all parts belong; William Henry Channing. AMERICAN. Channing, the nephew and biographer of the celebrated divine, Dr. William Ellery Channing, and the son of Francis Dana Channing, was born in Boston, May 25th, 1810. His biography of his uncle is written with marked ability. His translations from the German are rendered with great skill. Channing was settled for some time over a Unitarian Church in Liverpool; then became a resident of London. In 1880 he revisited his native country, and forwarded the movement for a memorial church at Newport, R. I., in commemoration of his uncle. His daughter is the wife of Edwin Arnold, the gifted English poet. MIGNON'S SONG. FROM GOETHE, Know'st thou the land where flowers of citron bloom? Oh there, oh there! Know'st thou the house? Its roof the columns bear,— Oh there, oh there! With thee, kind guardian, oh could I be there!" Know'st thou the mountain peak? the airy bridge, Where loaded mules climb o'er the misty ridge? In hollows dwell the serpent's ancient brood; The rent crag rushes down the foaming flood: Know'st thou the mount? Oh there, oh there Leadeth our way-O father, lead us there! Edmund Hamilton Sears. AMERICAN. Sears (1810-1876) was a native of Berkshire, Mass. He graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in 1834, and at the Theological School in Cambridge in 1837. He became a Unitarian minister, and preached at Wayland, Mass., till 1865, when he became pastor over the Society in Weston. He was the author of "Athanasia, or Foregleams of Immortality," a work highly esteemed both in England and America; also, "The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ." He visited England in 1873, where he was received with much kindness in religious circles. O. W. Holmes, the poet, pronounces the hymn we quote to be "one of the finest and most beautiful ever written." CHRISTMAS SONG. Calm on the listening ear of night Come Heaven's melodious strains, Where wild Judea stretches far Her silver-mantled plains; Celestial choirs from courts above Shed sacred glories there; And angels with their sparkling lyres Make music on the air. The answering hills of Palestine Send back the glad reply, And greet from all their holy heights The day-spring from on high: O'er the blue depths of Galilee There comes a holier calm, And Sharon waves, in solemn praise, Her silent groves of palm. "Glory to God!" The lofty strain The realm of ether fills: How sweeps the song of solemn joy O'er Judah's sacred hills! "Glory to God!" The sounding skies Loud with their anthems ring: "Peace on the earth; good-will to men, From Heaven's eternal King!" Light on thy hills, Jerusalem! The Saviour now is born: More bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains Breaks the first Christmas morn; And brighter on Moriah's brow, Crowned with her temple-spires, Which first proclaim the new-born light, Clothed with its Orient fires. This day shall Christian lips be mute, And Christian hearts be cold? Oh, catch the anthem that from heaven THE ANGELS' SONG. It came upon the midnight clear, Still through the cloven sky they come, Above its sad and lowly plains They bend on heavenly wing, And ever o'er its Babel sounds The blessed angels sing. Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong; And men, at war with men, hear not The love-song which they bring: Oh! hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing! And ye, beneath life's crushing load Look now! for glad and golden hours For lo! the days are hastening on, Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world send back the song Which now the angels sing. Alfred Tennyson. The third son of the Rev. George Clayton Tennyson, D.D., Alfred, was born in the parsonage of Somersby (near Spilsby), in Lincolnshire, in 1810. He received his early education at the school of his native town. From thence both he and his elder brothers, Frederic and Charles, proceeded to Cambridge, entering at Trinity College when Dr. Whewell was tutor. In 1829 Alfred won the Chancellor's Medal for his poem in blank verse, entitled "Timbuctoo." While at Cambridge, Charles (who subsequently took the name of Turner) and Alfred published privately a small volume of poems, which was favorably noticed by Coleridge. In 1830 Alfred put forth a volume entitled "Poems, chiefly Lyrical." It contained, among other pieces, "Claribel," the "Ballad of Oriana," ," "Lilian," and "The Merman." It commanded no immediate success, though the discerning few saw in it the promise of a new and original poet. In 1833 another volume appeared, and from that time Tennyson's fame began to broaden and flourish. It was greatly increased by the appearance in 1842 of a collection of his smaller pieces, with the addition of "Locksley Hall," "Godiva," "Lady Clara Vere de Vere," the "Lord of Burleigh," the "Two Voices," "Dora," "St. Simon Stylites," etc. His position among contemporary poets was now established. Whatever has appeared since has only extended and confirmed his reputation. In 1847, "The Princess" was published; in 1850, the author's genius culminated in "In Memoriam," the most memorable of all his works, and the best sustained poem of the kind in all literature. It was a tribute to the memory of his college chum, Arthur Hallam, son of the historian, and betrothed to the poet's sister Emily. Charlotte Bronté characterized the work as "beautiful but monotonous;" but the poet's skill is shown in making his one theme so replete with interest and with profound reflections on the destiny of man. Wordsworth died in 1850, and the office of Poet-laureate was conferred upon Tennyson, with a pension of £200 per annum. In 1852 appeared his "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington." In 1855, "Maud" was published; in 1858, the "Idyls of the King;" in 1864, "Enoch Arden;" in 1875 and 1876, his dramas of "Queen Mary" and "Harold.” For many years Tennyson has lived in the midst of his family in retirement at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, not wholly secure, however, from the intrusive curiosity of tourists and visitors to the island. EDWARD GRAY. Sweet Emma Moreland, of yonder town, Met me walking on yonder way." "And have you lost your heart ?" she said; "And are you married yet, Edward Gray ?” Sweet Emma Moreland spoke to me: "Ellen Adair she loved me well, Against her father's and mother's will: To-day I sat for an hour and wept By Ellen's grave, on the windy hill. "Shy she was, and I thought her cold; Thought her proud, and fled over the sea; Filled I was with folly and spite, When Ellen Adair was dying for me. "Cruel, cruel the words I said! Cruelly came they back to-day: 'You're too slight and fickle,' I said, To trouble the heart of Edward Gray. "There I put my face in the grassWhispered, 'Listen to my despair: I repent me of all I did: Speak a little, Ellen Adair!' "Then I took a pencil, and wrote On the mossy stone, as I lay, 'Here lies the body of Ellen Adair; And here the heart of Edward Gray! "Love may come, and love may go, And fly, like a bird, from tree to tree: But I will love no more, no more, Till Ellen Adair come back to me. "Bitterly wept I over the stone: Bitterly weeping I turned away: There lies the body of Ellen Adair! And there the heart of Edward Gray!" WELCOME TO ALEXANDRA. WELCOM MARCH 7TH, 1863. Sea-king's daughter from over the sea, Saxon and Norman and Dane are we, Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet! Break, happy land, into earlier flowers! Make music, O bird, in the new-budded bowers! Rush to the roof, sudden rocket, and higher Roll as the ground-swell dashed on the strand, Bride of the heir of the kings of the sea- GO NOT, HAPPY DAY. FROM "MAUD." Go not, happy day, from the shining fields, ASK ME NO MORE. FROM "THE PRINCESS: A MEDLEY."! Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea; The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape, With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape; But O too fond, when have I answered thee? Ask me no more. 1 "The Princess" is a story of a prince and princess contracted by their parents without having seen each other. The lady repudiates the alliance; but after a series of adventures and incidents, somewhat improbable and incoherent, she relents and surrenders. The mixture of modern ideas with those of the age of chivalry makes "The Princess" truly a medley. |