THE POEMS IN THIS VOLUME, SELECTED FROM WORKS PUBLISHED BY FIELDS, OSGOOD & CO., ARE USED BY THEIR PERMISSION OUR POETICAL FAVORITES. The Voiceless. E count the broken lyres that rest WE Where the sweet wailing singers slumber, But o'er their silent sister's breast The wild-flowers who will stoop to number? A few can touch the magic string, And noisy Fame is proud to win them; Alas for those who never sing, But die with all their music in them! Nay, grieve not for the dead alone Whose song has told their hearts' sad story; O'er Sappho's memory-haunted billow; O hearts that break and give no sign To every hidden pang were given, OLIVER W. HOLMES. The Songs of Our Fathers. "Sing aloud Old songs, the precious music of the heart." ING them upon the sunny hills, SIN When days are long and bright, Sing them along the misty moor, The songs their souls rejoiced to hear, And each proud note made lance and spear The songs that through our valleys green, Sent on from age to age, Like his own river's voice, have been The peasant's heritage. The reaper sings them when the vale Is filled with plumy sheaves; The woodman, by the starlight pale Cheered homeward through the leaves: And unto them the glancing oars A joyous measure keep, Where the dark rocks that crest our shores Dash back the foaming deep. So let it be!- —a light they shed A memory of the gentle dead, |