232 DEATH OF AN INFANT. A chambermaid, whose lip and eye, And cheek, and brown hair, bright and curling, Spoke nature's aristocracy; And one, half groom, half seneschal, Who bow'd me through court, bower, and hall, For ten-and-sixpence sterling. DEATH OF AN INFANT. BY LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. DEATH found strange beauty on that polish'd brow, And dash'd it out. On cheek and lip. And the rose faded. He touch'd the veins with ice, Forth from those blue eyes There spake a wisnful tenderness, a doubt For ever. There had been a murmuring sound Death gazed, and left it there. He dared not steal THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS. BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. THERE is a Reaper, whose name is Death, And, with his sickle keen, He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, "Shall I have nought that is fair?" saith he; He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, He kiss'd their drooping leaves; It was for the Lord of Paradise He bound them in his sheaves, "My Lord has need of these flowerets gay," The Reaper said, and smiled; "Dear tokens of the earth are they, 66 Where he was once a child. They shall all bloom in fields of light, And saints, upon their garments white, And the mother gave, in tears and pain, She knew she should find them all again In the fields of light above. (233) 234 DEMOCRACY. O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, DEMOCRACY. BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER SPIRIT of Truth, and Love, and Light! Or wounds the generous ear of GOD! Beautiful yet thy temples rise, Though there profaning gifts are thrown; And fires unkindled of the skies Are glaring round thy altar-stone. Still sacred-though thy name be breathed Oh, ideal of my boyhood's time! The faith in which my father stood, Even when the sons of Lust and Crime Still to those courts my footsteps turn, For through the mists which darken there, I see the flame of Freedom burn The Kebla of the patriot's prayer! DEMOCRACY. The generous feeling, pure and warm, The prompt self-sacrifice-are thine. Beneath thy broad, impartial eye, How fade the cords of caste and birth! How equal in their suffering lie The groaning multitudes of earth! Still to a stricken brother true, Whatever clime hath nurtured him; As stoop'd to heal the wounded Jew The worshipper on Gerizim. By misery unrepell'd, unawed By pomp or power, thou see'st a Man Through all disguise, form, place, or name, On man, as man, retaining yet, The crown upon his forehead set- And there is reverence in thy look; And veil'd his perfect brightness there. 235 236 DEMOCRACY. Not from the cold and shallow fount Of vain philosophy thou art; Thrill'd, awed, by turns, the listener's heart, In holy words which cannot die, In thoughts which angels lean'd to know, That Voice's echo hath not died! Thy name and watchword o'er this land Not to these altars of a day, At Party's call, my gift I bring; But on thy olden shrine I lay The voiceless utterance of his will His pledge to Freedom and to Truth, |