They grieved but no wail from their slumbers may come;
They joy'd-but the voice of their gladness is dumb.

12. They died! (pl.) aye, they died; and we things that are now
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
Who make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the changes they met on their pilgrimage road.

13 Yea, hope and despondence, and pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together like sunshine and rain;

And the smile and the tear, and the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other like surge upon surge.

14 "Tis the twink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud;
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

QUESTIONS.-1. How, according to the notation, should the first stanza be read? 2. How the eleventh and twelfth stanzas? 3. What direction is given for securing the distinct articulation of such words as fest-flitting, fast-flying, second line, first stanza? See Remark, page 15.

EXERCISE LII.

THE AMERICAN FOREST GIRL.

MRS. HEM ANS

Wildly and mournfully the Indian drum
On the deep hush of moonlit forests broke;
"Sing us a death-song, for thine hour is come;"
So the red warriors to their captive spoke.
Still, and amidst those dusky forms alone,

A youth-a fair-haired youth of England stood,
Like a king's son; though from his cheek had flown
The mantling crimson of the island blood,

And his pressed lips looked marble.

2. Fiercely bright,

And high around him, blazed the fires of night,
Rocking beneath the cedars to and fro,

As the wind passed, and, with a fitful glow,
Lighting the victim's face. But who could tell
Of what within his secret heart befell,

Known but to Heaven that hour?

3. Perchance a thought

Of his far home then so intensely wrought,
That his full image, pictured to his eye,
On the dark ground of mortal agony,
Rose clear as day! and he might see the band
Of his young sisters, wandering hand in hand,
Where the laburnums drooped; or haply binding
The jasmine, up the door's low pillars winding;
Or, as day closed upon their gentle mirth,
Gathering, with braided hair, around the hearth.
Where sat their mother; and that mother's face,
Its grave sweet smile yet wearing in the place
Where so it ever smiled!

4. Perchance the prayer

Learned at her knee came back on his despair;

The blessing from her voice, the very tone

Of her "Good-night!" might breathe from boyhood gone!
He started and looked
up; thick cypress boughs,
Full of strange sound, waved o'er him, darkly red
In the broad stormy fire-light; savage brows,

With tall plumes crested, and wild hues o'erspread,
Girt him like feverish phantoms; and pale stars
Looked through the branches as through dungeon bars,
Shedding no hope. He knew, he felt his doom;
(2) Oh, what a tale to shadow with its gloom

That happy hall in England! Idle fear!

Would the winds tell ít?-who might dream or hear
The secrets of the forèsts?

5. (8.) To the stake

They bound him; and the proud young soldier strove His father's spirit in his breast to wake,

Trusting to die in silence! He, the love
Of many hearts!-the fondly-reared-the fair,
Gladdening all eyes to see! And fettered there,
He stood beside his death-pyre, and the brand
Flamed up to light it, in the chieftain's hand.

6 He thought upon his God. (p.) Hush! hark! a cry
Breaks on the stern and dread solemnity;

A step hath pierced the ring! Who dares intrude
On the dark hunters in their vengeful mood?

A girl-a young slight girl-a fawn-like child
Of green savannas and the leafy wild,

Springing, unmarked till then, as some lone flower,
Happy because the sunshine is its dower;
Yet one that knew how early tears are shed,
For hers had mourned a playmate brother dead.

7. She had sat gazing on the victim long,
Until the pity of her soul grew strong;
And, by its passion's deepening fervor swayed,
Even to the stake she rushed, and gently laid
His bright head on her bosom, and around
His form her slender arms, to shield it, wound
Like close Liannes; then raised her glittering eye
And clear-toned voice, that said, (ff.) “ He shall not die !”

8. "HE SHALL NOT DIE !" the gloomy forest thrilled
To that sweet sound. A sudden wonder fell

On the fierce throng; and heart and hand were stilled,
Struck down, as by the whisper of a spell.

9. They gazed, their dark souls bowed before the maid,
She of the dancing step in wood and glade!
And, as her cheek flushed through its olive hue,
As her black tresses to the night-wind flew,

Something o'ermastered them from that young mien,
Something of Heaven, in silence felt and seen;
And, seeming to their child-like faith a token,
That the Great Spirit by her voice had spoken.

(8) They loosed the bonds that held their captive's breath; From his pale lips they took the cup of death;

They quenched the brand beneath the cypress-tree; )" AWAY!" they cried, "young stranger, THOU ART FREE!”

QUESTIONS.-1. Why the falling inflection on fear, 4th stanza? See Rule VIII., page 31. 2. What rule for the rising inflection on it, 4th stanza? 3. What, for the falling on forests, 4th stanza ?

EXERCISE LIII.

HONOR TO WOMEN.

FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER.

1. Honor to women! entwining and braiding,

2.

Life's garland with roses forever unfading,

In the vail of the graces all modestly kneeling, Love's band with sweet spells have they wreathed, have

they blessed;

And, tending with hands ever pure, have caressed

The flame of each holy, each beautiful feeling.

Ever truth's bright bounds out-ranges

Man, and his wild spirit strives,
Ever with each thought that changes
As the storm of passion drives;
With heart appeased, contented never,
Grasps he at the future's gleam,
Beyond the stars pursuing ever
The restless phantom of his dream.

3. But the glances of women, enchantingly glowing,
Their light woos the fugitive back, ever throwing

A link round the present, that binds like a spell; In the neat cottage-home of the mother presiding, All graces, all gentleness, round them abiding, As nature's true daughters, how sweetly they dwell!

4. (") Man is ever warring, rushing

Onward through life's stormy way,
Wild his fervor, fierce and crushing,
Knows he neither rest nor stay;
Creating, slaying-day by day

Urged by passion's fury brood,
A hydra band, whose heads, for aye
Fall, to be for aye renewed.

5. But women, to sweet silent praises resigning Such hopes as affection is ever enshrining,

6.

Pluck the moment's brief flowers as they wander along

More free in their limited range, richer ever

Than man, proudly soaring with fruitless endeavor

Through the infinite circles of science and song.

Strong, and proud, and self-commending,

Man's cold heart doth never move

To a gentler spirit bending,

To the godlike power of love;

Knows not soul-exchange so tender,

Tears, by others' tears confessed;
Life's dark combats steel, and render
Harder his obdurate breast!

7. Oh ! wakened like harp, and as gently resembling
Its murmuring chords, to the night-breezes trembling,
Breathes woman's fond soul, and as feelingly too;
Touched lightly, touched deeply, oh, ever she borrows
Grief itself from the image of grief, and her sorrows

Ever gen her soft eyes with Heaven's holiest dew