Avails it, whether bare or shod, If grandeur's guilty bribe they spurned, THE GROUND SWELL.* WRITTEN ON THE BREAKWATER, PLYMOUTH SOUND. THE Sun is high, the Atlantic is unfanned N. T. C. *The Ground Swell is principally occasioned by storms in the Atlantic, which agitate the sea many days after the tempests have ceased. The ocean heaves, as it were, in masses, but its surface is quite smooth, i. e. unbroken into waves, and without foam, except where it comes in contact with the coast. MIRKWOOD MERE. BY SIR WALTER SCOTT LATE, when the Autumn evening fell, But distant winds began to wake, Then, as the whirlwind nearer pressed, Began to shake his foamy crest O'er furrowed brow and blackened cheek, The realms of fairy bliss were lost. Yet, with a stern delight and strange, I saw the spirit-stirring change! As warred the wind with wave and wood, And felt my heart more strongly bound, I mourned that tranquil scene no more. So, on the idle dreams of youth As that which fled the Autumn gale; Be each fair form that glided by; While dreams of love, and lady's charms, Waverley. A PRAYER. BY WILLIAM BECKFORD, ESQ. LIKE the low murmur of the secret stream, Which, through dark alders, winds its shaded way, My suppliant voice is heard:-Ah! do not deem That on vain toys I throw my hours away. In the recesses of the forest vale, On the wild mountain,— -on the verdant sod, Where the fresh breezes of the morn prevail,— I wander lonely, communing with God. When the faint sickness of a wounded heart, Creeps in cold shudderings through my sinking frame, I turn to thee,-that holy peace impart Which soothes the invokers of thy awful name. O all-pervading Spirit !-Sacred beam! Parent of life and light!—Eternal Power! Grant me, through obvious clouds, one transient gleam Of thy bright essence in my dying hour! Britton's Fonthill Abbey. THE CONTRAST, WRITTEN UNDER WINDSOR TERRACE, 17TH FEB. 1820. BY HORACE SMITH, ESQ. I SAW him last on this Terrace proud, Begirt with his Court, and in all the crowd, Bright was the sun, and the leaves were green,— The cymbal replied to the tambourine, I have stood with the crowd beside his bier, But every eye was dim with a tear, And the silence by sobs was broken. I have heard the earth on his coffin pour, The time since he walked in his glory thus, We had fought the fight; from his lofty throne And it gladdened each eye-save his alone A daughter beloved-a Queen-a son— For his eyes were sealed, and his mind was dark, And he sat in his age's lateness, Like a vision throned, as a solemn mark Of the frailty of human greatness. His silver beard, o'er a bosom spread, Like a yearly-lengthening snow-drift, shed Still o'er him oblivion's waters lay, Though the stream of time kept flowing; When they spoke of our King twas but to say, That the old man's strength was going. He is gone at length. He is laid in dust- His people's heart is his funeral urn; And should a sculptured stone be denied him, There will his name be found, when in turn We lay our heads beside him. London Magazine. FRAGMENT. SEE April comes! a primrose coronal, |