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Like a sunbeam the pickerel glides through his pool,
And the spotted trout sleeps where the water is cool,
Or darts from his shelter of rock and of root

At the beaver's quick plunge or the angler's pursuit.

And ours are the mountains which awfully rise

Till they rest their green heads on the blue of the skies;
And ours are the forests, unwasted, unshorn,
Save where the wild path of the tempest is torn.

And though savage and wild be this climate of ours,
And brief be our season of fruits and of flowers,
Far dearer the blast round our mountains which raves,
Than the sweet summer zephyr which breathes over slaves.

Hurrah for VERMONT! for the land which we till
Must have sons to defend her from valley and hill;
Leave the harvest to rot on the field where it grows,
And the reaping of wheat for the reaping of foes.

Far, far from Michiscoui's valley, to where
Poosoomsuck steals down from his wood-circled lair,
From Schocticook river to Lutterlock town-
Ho!-all to the rescue! Vermonters, come down.

Come York, or come Hampshire-come traitors and knaves!
If
ye rule o'er our land, ye shall rule o'er our graves;

Our vow is recorded-our banner unfurled;

In the name of Vermont, we defy all the world.

Ex. CXXI.-HALLOWED GROUND.

WHAT's hallowed ground!-Has earth a clod
Its Maker meant not should be trod

By man, the image of his God,

Erect and free,

Unscourged by Superstition's rod

To bow the knee?

CAMPBELL.

That's hallowed ground-where, mourned and missed,
The lips repose our love has kissed ;-

But where's their memory's mansion? Is 't

Yon church-yard's bowers?

[blocks in formation]

What hallows ground where heroes sleep?
'Tis not the sculptured piles you heap!
In dews that heavens far distant weep,
Their turf may bloom;

Or genii twine beneath the deep
Their coral tomb.

But strew his ashes to the wind

Whose sword or voice has served mankindAnd is he dead, whose glorious mind

Lifts thine on high?

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.

Is 't death to fall for freedom's right?
He's dead alone that lacks her light!
And murder sullies in Heaven's sight
The sword he draws:-

What can alone ennoble fight?
A noble cause!

Give that! and welcome war to brace

Her drums! and rend heaven's reeking space!

The colors painted face to face,

The charging cheer,

Though death's pale horse led on the chase,
Shall still be dear!

And place our trophies where men kneel
To Heaven!-but Heaven rebukes my zeal!
The cause of truth and human weal,

O God above!

Transfer it from the sword's appea!
To peace and love!

Peace, love! the cherubim, that join

Their spread wings o'er devotion's shrine ;Prayers sound in vain, and temples shine

Where they are not ;

The heart alone can make divine

Religion's spot

To incantations dost thou trust,

And pompous

rites in domes august?

See moldering stones and metal's rust
Belie the vaunt,

That man can bless one pile of dust
With chime or chant.

Fair stars! are not your beings pure?
Can sin, can death your worlds obscure?
Else why so swell the thoughts at your
Aspect above?

Ye must be Heaven's that make us sure
Of heavenly love!

And in your harmony sublime

I read the doom of distant time;
That man's regenerate soul from crime
Shall yet be drawn,

And reason on his mortal clime

Immortal dawn.

What's hallowed ground? 'Tis what gives birth
To sacred thoughts in souls of worth!-
Peace! independence! truth! go forth

Earth's compassed round;
And your high-priesthood shall make earth
All hallowed ground.

Ex. CXXII.-DARKNESS.

I HAD a dream, which was not all a dream.The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

BYRON.

Morn came, and went,-and came, and brought no day: And men forgot their passions, in the dread

Of this their desolation; and all hearts

Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light:

And they did live by watch-fires; and the thrones,

The palaces of crownéd kings, the huts,

The habitations of all things which dwell,

Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed;
And men were gathered round their blazing homes,
To look once more into each other's face:
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanoes and their mountain torch.

And fearful hope was all the world contained:
Forests were set on fire; but, hour by hour,
They fell and faded; and the crackling trunks
Extinguished with a crash,-and all was black.
The brows of men, by the despairing light,
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits

The flashes fell upon them. Some lay down,
And hid their eyes, and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again,
With curses, cast them down upon the dust,
And gnashed their teeth and howled.

shrieked,

The wild birds

And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings: the wildest birds
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawled
And twined themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless,-they were slain for food.

And War, which for a moment was no more, Did glut himself again :—a meal was bought With blood, and each sat sullenly apart, Gorging himself in gloom; no love was left:

All earth was but one thought,—and that was death, Immediate and inglorious; and men

Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;

The meager by the meager were devoured;
Even dogs assailed their masters,―all, save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept

The birds, and beasts, and famished men, at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But, with a piteous and perpetual moan,

And a quick, desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answered not with a caress,—he died.

The crowd was famished by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,

And they were enemies; they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place,

Where had been heaped a mass of holy things

For an unholy usage; they raked up,

And, shivering, scraped, with their cold, skeleton hands,
The feeble ashes; and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame,

Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld

Each other's aspects,-saw, and shrieked, and died,—
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written fiend. The world was void;
The populous and the powerful was a lump,—
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless,—
A lump of death,-a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean, all stood still;
And nothing stirred within their silent depths:
Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea,

grave;

And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped,
They slept on the abyss without a surge:
The waves were dead; the tides were in their
The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
The winds were withered in the stagnant air;
And the clouds perished: Darkness had no need
Of aid from them; she was the universe.

Ex. CXXIII-THE DEMON SHIP.

HOOD.

'T WAS off the Wash-the sun went down-the sea looked black and grim,

For stormy clouds, with murky fleece, were mustering at the

brim ;

Titanic shades! enormous gloom!- -as if the solid night

Of Erebus rose suddenly to seize upon the light!

It was a time for mariners to bear a wary eye,

With such a dark conspiracy between the sea and sky! Down went my helm-close reefed-the tack held freely in my hand

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