Ode for an Agricultural Celebration. The hands of kings and sages Entwined the chaplet round d; That formed her earliest glory. The proud throne shall crumble, The tribes of earth shall humble The pride of those who reign; Shall fade, decay, and perish. Through endless generations, And feeds the expectant nations. W. C. BRYANT. 3 Mother's Love. MOTHER'S love-how sweet the name! What is a mother's love? -A noble, pure, and tender flame, Enkindled from above, To bless a heart of earthly mould: The warmest love that can grow cold- A MOTHER'S LOVE. The infant, reared alone for earth, May live, may die-to curse his birth; A parent's heart may prove a snare ; Her hand may lead, with gentlest care, Blest infant! whom his mother taught And poured upon his dawning thought -Time is Eternity begun : Behold that mother's love. Blest mother! who in Wisdom's path, Thus taught her son to flee the wrath, And know the fear of God: Ah! youth, like him enjoy your prime, Begin Eternity in time, Taught by that mother's love. That mother's love!-how sweet the name! What was that mother's love? -The noblest, purest, tenderest flame, That kindles from above, 51 52 TO THE MOON. Within a heart of earthly mould, This was that mother's love. JAMES MONTGOMERY. To the Moon. ITH how sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the skies, To me, that feel the like, thy state descries. Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit? Those lovers scorn, whom that love doth possess? SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. [SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, the best and bravest of the noble train who surrounded the throne of the "Virgin Queen," the Bayard of the Elizabethan era, who, dying in the field at Zutphen, put away the cup of water from his parched lips, that it might refresh the soldier "whose need was greater than his," was an ardent lover of poetry, and the earliest and kindest patron of the author of the "Faerie Queene." His poetical works are confined to a few sonnets and short poems, but some of these are marvellous for the force of their language and the purity of their tone.] |