Marched armies o'er thy tomb with thundering tread,
O'erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis,'
And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder,
When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder?

If the tomb's secrets may not be confessed,
The nature of thy private life unfold:

A heart has throbbed beneath that leatnern breast,
And tears adown that dusty cheek have rolled;
Have children climbed those knees, and kissed that face?
What was thy name, and station, age, and race?

Statue of flesh2-Immortal of the dead!
Imperishable type of evanescence!

Posthumous3 man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed,
And standest undecayed within our presence!
Thou wilt hear nothing till the Judgment-morning,
When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning!

Why should this worthless tegument endure,
If its undying guest be lost for ever?
Oh! let us keep the soul embalmed and pure
In living virtue; that, when both must sever,
Although corruption may our frame consume,
The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom!

Horace Smith.

THE ALPS AT DAY-BREAK.

THE Sun-beams streak the azure skies,
And line with light the mountain's brow:
With hounds and horns the hunters rise,
And chase the roebuck through the snow.

From rock to rock with giant-bound,
High on their iron poles they pass;

1 Osiris, &c.-names of Egyptian divinities, worshipped under various forms. 2 Statue of flesh, &c.-this is a very striking passage. The opposition in the terms excites and interests the mind. Statue of-what? marble? no-flesh. Immortal-undying-of the-dead. Imperishable-undecaying-type of decay. 3 Posthumous-from the Latin post, after, and humus, the ground-after being put into the earth-after death.

Mute,1 lest the air, convulsed by sound,
Rend from above the frozen mass.2

The goats wind slow their wonted way,3
Up craggy steeps and ridges rude;
Marked by the wild wolf for his prey,
From desert cave or hanging wood.

And while the torrent thunders loud,
And as the echoing cliffs reply,
The huts peep o'er the morning cloud,
Perched, like an eagle's nest, on high.

Rogers.

THE CALENDAR OF FLORA.4

FAIR rising from her icy couch,
Wan herald of the floral year,

The snow-drop marks the Spring's approach,
Ere yet the primrose groups appear,

Or peers the arum6 from its spotted veil,

Or odorous violets scent the cold capricious gale.

Then thickly strewn in woodland bowers,
Anemonies their stars unfold,

1 Mute-i. e. at particular spots, where danger was to be apprehended.

2 Frozen mass-an avalanche or huge mass of snow.

3 Way-this line and that in the first stanza, "with hounds and horns the hunters rise"-supply instances of what is called alliteration or the frequent occurence of the same initial letter. It is an artifice of composition which ought to be very judiciously employed, to satisfy a cultivated taste -though its occasional introduction is pleasing. The poet Churchill has at once ingeniously ridiculed and exemplified it in the following verse :

"And apt alliteration's artful aid."

* In the "Calendar of Flora"-the flowers, by their appearance at different parts of the year, serve as a sort of register, or calendar, of the seasons.

5 Herald-synonymous with harbinger and messenger. All these words convey the idea of going before, but differ in the purpose.

A herald is one who goes before to declare something

harbinger

messenger. . . .

prepare

...... take a message

6 Arum maculatum-spotted arum, or cuckoo-pint.

7 Anemonies-called also wind-flowers.

There spring the sorrel's veined flowers,
And, rich in vegetable gold,1

From calyx pale the freckled cowslips born,
Receive in jasper cups the fragrant dews of morn.

Lo! the green thorn her silver buds
Expands to May's enlivening beam;
Hottonia2 blushes on the floods;

And, where the slowly-trickling stream
Mid grass and spiry rushes stealing glides,
Her lovely fringed flowers fair menyanthes3 hides.

In the lone copse, or shadowy dale,

Wild clustered knots of harebells grow,

And droops the lily of the vale

O'er vinca's matted leaves below.

The orchis race with varied beauty charm,
And mock the exploring bee or fly's aërial form.

Wound o'er the hedge-row's oaken boughs,
The woodbine's tassels float in air,
And, blushing, the uncultured rose

Hangs high her beauteous blossoms there;
Her fillets there the purple nightshade weaves,
And pale brionia5 winds her broad and scalloped leaves.

To later Summer's fragrant breath

Clematis' feathery garlands dance;

The hollow foxglove nods beneath;

While the tall mullein's yellow lance,—
Dear to the mealy moth of evening-towers;

And the weak galium weaves its myriad fairy flowers.

Sheltering the coot's or wild-duck's nest,
And where the timid halcyon hides,
The willow-herb, in crimson drest,
Waves with arundo o'er the tides;

1 Vegetable gold-an expression borrowed from Milton, (Paradise Lost iv, 218,) and somewhat affectedly employed here to denote the golden colour of the cowslips.

2 Hottonia-the water-violet.

3 Menyanthes- -buck-bean or bog-bean.

4 Vinca-periwinkle. 5 Brionia-briony. 7 Halcyon, the kingfisher.

6 Galium-the yellow bed-straw.

And there the bright nymphæa1 loves to lave,
Or spreads her golden orbs upon the dimpling wave.

And thou, by pain and sorrow blest,
Papaver!2 that an opiate dew,
Conceal'st beneath thy scarlet vest,

Contrasting with the corn-flower blue,
Autumnal months behold thy gauzy leaves

Bend in the rustling gale amid the tawny sheaves.

From the first bud, whose venturous head
The Winter's lingering tempest braves,
To those which, midst the foliage dead,
Sink latest to their annual graves,

All are for health, for use, for pleasure given,

And speak, in various ways, the bounteous hand of Heaven.

THE HOROLOGES OF FLORA.

In every copse and sheltered dell
Unveiled to the observant eye,
Are faithful monitors, who tell
How pass the hours and seasons by.

Charlotte Smith.

The green-robed children of the spring
Will mark the periods as they pass,
Mingle with leaves time's feathered wing,
And wreathe with flowers his silent glass.

Mark where transparent waters glide,
Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed,
There cradled on the dimpling tide,
Nymphæa1 rests her lovely head.

But, conscious of the earliest beam,
She rises from her humid nest,

2

1 Nymphæa-the white water-lily-the "golden orbs" in the next line, belong to the yellow species. Papaver-poppy. There seems to be an error here; it is the white poppy-papaver somniferum, which produces opium-the "opiate dew" of the text.

3 Horologe—(from Lat. horologium, which is from wg an hour, and λɛyɛ to tell) that which tells the hour, a clock, watch, &c. In the "horologe of Flora," or, as it is sometimes called, "the dial of flowers," certain flowers, which open or shut at regular intervals, fancifully serve the purpose of a time-piece.

And sees reflected on the stream
The virgin whiteness of her breast,

Till the bright day-star to the west
Declines, in ocean's surge to lave,
Then, folded in her modest vest,
She slumbers on the rocking wave.

See hieracium's1 various tribe

Of plumy2 seed and radiate3 flowers,
The course of time their blooms describe,
And wake or sleep appointed hours.

Broad o'er its imbricated+ cup,

The goatsbeard spreads its golden rays,
But shuts its cautious petals up,
Retreating from the noontide blaze.

Pale as a pensive cloistered5 nun,
The bethlem-star her face unveils,
When o'er the mountain peers the sun;
But shades it from the vesper gales.

Among the loose and arid sands,
The humble arenaria creeps,
Slowly the purple star expands,
But soon within its calyx sleeps.

And those small bells so lightly rayed,
With young Aurora's rosy hue,
Are to the noontide sun displayed,

But shut their plaits against the dew.

1 Hieracium-hawkweed.

2 Plumy-feathery, from the Latin pluma, a feather.

3 Radiate from the Latin radius, the spoke of a wheel, or a line or ray of light, emitted from a luminous body. As a botanical term, the adjective "radiate" signifies having florets set round a disk in the form of a star.

4 Imbricated from Latin imbrer, a gutter-tile for carrying off rain-cut or indented like a gutter-tile.

5 Cloistered-shut up in a cloister-from the Latin claustrum, an enclosed place— by modern usage, for religious purposes.

6

Arenaria-from the Latin arena, sand, which is from arere, to be dry

sandwort.

7 Calyx-another form of the Latin calix, a cup-the outer covering of a flower. S Plaits-folds; same as plat, from the Latin plicare, to fold, through the French plier. In old English the word was plite. Chaucer writes:-" to sowe (i.e. to sow) and plite."