XXVII.-PRENTICE'S BEST POEM. [The following is the poem read by George D. Prentice of the Louisville Journal at the unvailing of the Clay statue-pronounced the best effort of his life by his admirers: ] 1. HAIL! true and glorious semblance, hail! Of him, the noblest of our race, To see again his living face! To hear the stirring words once more, 2. Lo! that calm, high, majestic look, To wave, as once, his wand of power, That o'er our country darkly lower. 3. Again, again, and yet again He rolled back passion's roaring tide, Each other's wildest wrath defied: Sweep o'er our half-wrecked ship of state, 4. But thou, majestic image, thou While gazing on a nation's pride; Afar beneath old Ashland's sod, Our hearts to country and to God. 5. We look on thee, we look on thee, And leave us in his grand old time! Oh, he was born to bless our race We see the image of his face Earth has no image of his soul! 6. Proud statue! if the nation's life, For which he toiled through all his years, And leave but groans, and blood, and tears; And ruin all our land assail, He'll turn away his eyes to heaven, And o'er thee we will cast thy vail. XXVIII. THE UNSEEN BATTLE-FIELD. 1. THERE is an unseen battle-field 2. That field is vailed from mortal sight, Who knows alone where victory lies, 3. One army clusters strong and fierce, His brow is like the thunder-cloud, 4. His captains, Pride, and Lust, and Hate, 5. Contending with this mighty force Yet there, with an unquailing front, 6. Their leader is a God-like form, 1. 7. His captains, FAITH, and HOPE, and LOVE, 8. They feel it speak a glorious truth, That to be victors they must learn 9. That faith sublime in wildest strife For every deadly blow a shield, 10. And when they win that battle-field, The plain where carnage once had reigned, 11. A spot where flowers of joy and peace And breathe the perfume of their praise XXIX.-WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE. WHAT Constitutes a state? SIR WILLIAM JONES. 2. Not high-raised battlements, or labored mound, Thick wall, or moated gate: Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Where low-born baseness wafts perfume to pride. No; men, high-minded men, With power as far above dull brutes indued, In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude: . Men who their duties know, But know their rights; and knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain : 3. And sovereign law, that state's collected will, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill: The fiend Discretion, like a vapor, sinks, Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks. XXX.-POETICAL SELECTIONS. 1.-ELOQUENCE OF SILENCE. MISS MARY A. WHEATON. 1. Ar midnight's hour, when o'er the sleeping world 2.-TRUE REFINEMENT. HOLLAND'S KATHRINA. 1. ONE thing I learned that she who thus had joined This cluster of disciples was not born And reared among their number; that was plain. I saw it in her bearing and her dress; In that unconsciousness of self that comes Of gentle breeding, and society Of gentle men and women; in the ease With which she bore the awkward deference Of those that spoke with her adown the aisle ; 3.-FORGIVE AND FORGET. CHARLES SWAIN. 1. FORGIVE and forget! why, the world would be lonely, The garden a wilderness left to deform, If the flowers but remembered the chilling blast only, Give the fragrance of feeling to sweeten life's way; 4. THE FLIGHT OF A SINGLE SOUL. 5.-GENIUS UNEMPLOYED. 1. Of all the dull, dead weights man ever bore, HOLLAND. |