ページの画像
PDF
ePub

In a Briton's sweet home shall a spoiler abide,
Profaning its loves and its charms?

Shall a Frenchman insult the loved fair at our side?
To arms! oh, my country, to arms!

Then rise fellow-freemen, and stretch the right hand,
And swear to prevail in your dear native land!

Shall a tyrant enslave us, my countrymen ?-No!
His head to the sword shall be given-

A death-bed repentance be taught the proud foe,
And his blood be an offering to heaven!
Then rise fellow-freemen, and stretch the right hand,
And swear to prevail in your dear native land!

CAMPBELL.

XXXVI. NELSON.

"THE most triumphant death is that of the martyr; the most awful that of the martyred patriot; the most splendid that of the hero in the hour of victory; and if the chariot and the horses of fire had been vouchsafed for Nelson's translation, he could scarcely have departed in a brighter blaze of glory. He has left us, not indeed his mantle of inspiration, but a name and an example, which are at this hour inspiring thousands of the youth of England: a name which is our pride, and an example which will continue to be our shield and our strength."-Southey's Life of Nelson.

DEEP graved in every British heart,
O never let his name depart!

Say to your sons,-Lo, here his grave,
Who victor died on Gadite' wave;
To him, as to the burning levin,2
Short, bright, resistless course was given.
Where'er his country's foes were found,
Was heard the fatal thunder's sound,
Till burst the bolts on yonder shore,
Rolled, blazed, destroy'd,—and was no more.

1. Fretum Gaditanum was the ancient name of the Straits of Gibraltar, and near it was Trafalgar, where the immortal Nelson fell.

SCOTT.

2. An antiquated word, meaning light

or lightning.
3. What bolt?

POEMS OF HOME AND COUNTRY.

I. THE HOMES OF ENGLAND.

"ENGLAND combines within itself all that is most desirable in scenery with all that is most necessary for the subsistence and comfort of man. The distinguishing peculiarity in the aspect of the country is, however, the exuberance of its vegetation, and the rich luxuriant appearance of its lower and far most extensive portion. It owes this distinction partly to nature and partly to art. The humidity and mildness of the climate maintain the fields in a constant state of verdure; in winter they are seldom covered with snow or blighted by long-continued frosts, and in summer they are rarely withered and parched by droughts. In this respect England is as superior to the finest countries of continental Europe-to Italy and Sicily, for example--as she is superior to them and to every other country in the amount of labour that has been expended in beautifying, improving, and fertilizing her surface. It is no exaggeration to affirm, that thousands upon thousands of millions have been laid out in making England what she now is. In no other nation has the combination of beauty with utility been so much regarded. Another peculiar feature in the physiogony of England is the number and magnificence of the seats of the nobility and gentry. These superb mansions, many of which are venerable from their antiquity, and all of which are surrounded with fine woods and grounds, give to the country an appearance of age, security, and wealth, that we should in vain look for anywhere else. The farm-houses and cottages have mostly also a substantial, comfortable look; and evince that taste for rural beauty, neatness, and cleanliness, that eminently distinguish their occupiers."-M'Culloch's Geo. Dictionary, Art. "England."

[blocks in formation]

The deer across their greensward bound2
Through shade and sunny gleam,

And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.

The merry homes of England!
Around their hearths by night,

What gladsome looks of household love
Meet in the ruddy light!

There woman's voice flows forth in song,
Or childhood's tale is told;
Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old. 3

The cottage homes of England!
By thousands on her plains,
They are smiling o'er the silvery brook,
And round the hamlet-fanes.
Through glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each 4 from its nook of leaves;
And fearless there the lowly sleep,
As the bird beneath their eaves.

The free fair homes of England!
Long, long in hut and hall

5

[blocks in formation]

"IF nature has denied to Britain the fruitful vine, the fragrant myrtle, the spontaneous soil, and the beautiful climate, she has also exempted her from the parching drought, the deadly siroc, and the frightful tornado. If our soil is poor and churlish, and our skies cold and frowning, the serpent never lurks within the one, nor the plague within the other. If our mountains are bleak and barren, they have

LOVE OF ENGLAND.

67 at least nursed within their bosoms a race of men whose industry and intelligence have performed greater wonders, and supply a more inexhaustible fund of wealth, than all the mines of Mexico and Hindostan. If other nations furnish us with the materials of our manufactures, ours are the skill and industry that have enhanced their value a thousandfold; ours are the capital and onterprise that have applied the great inventions of Watt and Arkwright, and made the ascendency of this little island be felt in the remotest corners of the world; ours, in a word, are those institutions, civil, political, and religious, that have made us the envy of surrounding nations, and raised us to a pinnacle of greatness from which nothing but intestine foes can ever thrust us down.-M'Diarmid.

[blocks in formation]

ENGLAND, with all thy faults, I love thee still--
My country! And, while yet a nook is left,
Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be constrained to love thee.' Though thy clime
Be fickle, and thy year most part 2 deformed
With dripping rains, or withered by a frost,
I would not yet exchange thy sullen skies,
And fields without a flower, for warmer France
With all her vines; nor for Ausonia's3 groves
Of golden fruitage, and her myrtle bowers.
To shake thy senate, and from heights sublime
Of patriot eloquence to flash down fire
Upon thy foes, was never meant my task:
But I can feel thy fortunes, and partake
Thy joys and sorrows, with as true a heart
As any thunderer there. And I can feel
Thy follies too; and with a just disdain
Frown at effeminates," whose very looks
Reflect dishonour on the land I love.

1. The ellipsis in this line? 2. What case is part in?

3. What is Ausonia?

4. Where?

COWPER.

5. Is this use of an adjective to be recommended in prose?

III. THE NAME OF ENGLAND.

"WHO shall say what work and works this England has yet to do? For what purpose this land of Britain was created, set like a jewel in the encircling blue of ocean; and this tribe of Saxons, fasi ioned in the depths of time, 'on the shores of the Black Sea,' or elsewhere, 'out of Harzgebirge rock,' or whatever other material, was sent travelling hitherward? No man can say; it was for a work, and for Thou seest them there; works, incapable of announcement in words.

part of them stand done, and visible to the eye; even these thou can'st not name; how much less the others still matter of prophecy only!"-Carlyle.

THE trumpet of the battle

Hath a high and thrilling tone;

And the first deep gun of an ocean fight

Dread music all its own.

But a mightier power, my England!

Is in that name of thine,

To strike the fire from every heart
Along the banner'd line."

Proudly it woke the spirits
Of yore, the brave and true,

When the bow was bent on Cressy's field,"

And the yeoman's arrow flew.

And proudly hath it floated

Through the battles of the sea,

When the red-cross flag o'er smoke-wreaths play'd,
Like the lightning in its glee.

On rock, on wave, on bastion,

Its echoes have been known;

By a thousand streams the hearts lie low,
That have answered to its tone.

A thousand ancient mountains
Its pealing note hath stirr'd;
Sound on, and on, for evermore,
O thou victorious word!

1. Why bannered line?

2. The son of Edward the Third, called the Black Prince, because he wore black armour, made himself famous by gaining the battle of Cressy in France; a battle wherein the English army, of thirty thousand men, was opposed by a force of

MRS. HEMANS.

a hundred and twenty thousand of the enemy. The English obtained a complete victory, which some say was partly owing to the havoc made by a few pieces of cannon, which were first used in this battle.

« 前へ次へ »