EXERCISE LXXXIX. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. 1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day; 2. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 3. Save, that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bower, Molest her ancient, solitary reign. GRAY. 4. Beneath those rugged elms-that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap, Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet-sleep. 5. The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 6. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, 7. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield; Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; * How jocund did they drive their team a-field! 8. Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure; 9. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, The paths of glory lead-but to the grave. 10. Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 11. Can storied urn, or animated bust, Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honor's voice provoke the silent dust, 12 Perhaps, in this neglected spot, is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 13. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 14. Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 15. Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, 16. Th' applause of listening senates to command, To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 17. Their lot forbade; nor circumscribed alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; 18. The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame; Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride, With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 19. Far from the madd'ning crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool, sequestered vale of life, They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 20. Yet even these bones from insult to protect, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, 21 Their name, their years, spelled by the unlettered Muse, The place of fame and elegy supply; And many a holy text around she strews, 22 For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 23. On some fond breast the parting soul relies; 24. 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; 25. Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. 26. "There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 27. "Hard by yon wood, now smiling, as in scorn, Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. 28. "One morn I missed him on the accustomed hill, Along the heath, and near his fav'rite tree; Another came; nor yet beside the rill, Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood, was he. 29. "The next, with dirges due, in sad array, Slow through the churchyard-path we saw him borne ; Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay, Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." THE EPITAPH. 30. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, 31. Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere : He gained from Heaven ('t was all he wished) a friend. 32. No further 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. QUESTIONS.-1. What pause after lead, ninth stanza! See page 48. 2. Are the questions in the eleventh stanza direct or indirect? EXERCISE XC. 1. A-CROP'-O-LIS, the highest part of a city; the citadel; especially, that of ancient Athens. 2. Marʼ-a-thon, a village of Attica, in ancient Greece, celebrated as the spot whereon a great victory was gained by Miltiades over the Persians, B. C. 490. 3. PLA'-TÆ-A, a town of Boeotia, in ancient Greece, rendered famous by a victory gained there by the Greeks over the Persians under Mardonius, B. C. 479. 4. MOR-GAR'-TEN, a mountain on the eastern border of the lake Egeri, in Switzerland, is celebrated for a victory gained there in 1815, over Leopold, the Arch-duke of Austria. . Lar'-PEN, the name of a place in Switzerland, famous for a victory achieved there in 1339, by the citizens of Bern, over the nobles who had undertaken to destroy their city. 6. MAN'-LI-US, and (7) SCIP'-I-O AF-RI-CA'-NUS, two noble Romans, the former celebrated for preserving the Capitol, when nearly taken by |