Like a sunbeam the pickerel glides through his pool, 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 though savage and wild be this climate of ours, Hurrah for VERMONT! for the land which we till Far, far from Michiscoui's valley, to where Come York, or come Hampshire-come traitors and knaves! 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 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, But where's their memory's mansion? Is 't Yon church-yard's bowers? What hallows ground where heroes sleep? Or genii twine beneath the deep 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 't death to fall for freedom's right? What can alone ennoble fight? 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, And place our trophies where men kneel O God above! Transfer it from the sword's appea! 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 That man can bless one pile of dust Fair stars! are not your beings pure? Ye must be Heaven's that make us sure And in your harmony sublime I read the doom of distant time; And reason on his mortal clime Immortal dawn. What's hallowed ground? 'Tis what gives birth Earth's compassed round; 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 fearful hope was all the world contained: The flashes fell upon them. Some lay down, shrieked, The wild birds And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, 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; The birds, and beasts, and famished men, at bay, And a quick, desolate cry, licking the hand The crowd was famished by degrees; but two And they were enemies; they met beside Where had been heaped a mass of holy things For an unholy usage; they raked up, And, shivering, scraped, with their cold, skeleton hands, Which was a mockery; then they lifted up Each other's aspects,-saw, and shrieked, and died,— grave; And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped, 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 |