FROM THE FIRE WORSHIPPERS. At midnight, and his carnage plies: : Woe to the half-dead wretch, who meets Amid the darkness of the streets! 443 FROM THE FIRE WORSHIPPERS.1 HINDA'S DESPAIR. She now has reach'd that dismal spot, Where, some hours since, his voice's tone Had come to soothe her fears and ills, Oh! stay-one moment is not much- 1 "The Ghebers (a word said by Gibbon to give origin to the Turkish term Giaour, an infidel), the Persians of the old religion," who, on the irruption of the Arab Saracens to conquer their country and extinguish their faith, either resisted or fled into foreign countries. Their descendants, under the title of Parsees, are numerous in the north-west of India. 2 "The angel, who has the most melodious voice of all God's creatures."-Sale. 3 In Mr. Moore's love pictures, beautifully as they are adapted to the phases of the passion in the climes where the scene is placed, we miss the higher and nobler attributes with which the emotion is invested in the writings of many of his contemporaries. DIRGE OF HINDA. Farewell-farewell to thee, Araby's daughter! Nor shall Iran,3 beloved of her Hero! forget thee- Farewell-be it ours to embellish thy pillow With every thing beauteous that grows in the deep; Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber With many a shell, in whose hollow-wreathed chamber We'll dive where the gardens of coral lie darkling, We'll seek where the sands of the Caspian are sparkling, Farewell-farewell-until pity's sweet fountain Is lost in the hearts of the fair and the brave," 1 "This wind (the Samoor) so softens the strings of lutes, that they can never be tuned while it lasts."-Stephen's Persia. 2 "One of the greatest curiosities found in the Persian Gulf is a fish which the English call star-fish. It is circular, and at night very luminous, resembling the full moon surrounded by rays."-Mirza-Abu-Taleb. The gulf yields a prolific pearl fishery. 8 The native appellation of Persia. "Some naturalists have imagined that amber is a concretion of the tears of birds."-See Trevoux, Chambers. 5 "The bay of Kieselarke, which is otherwise called the Golden Bay, the sand whereof shines as fire."-Stray. 6 Comp. Collins, Dirge on Thomson "And mourned till pity's self be dead." ** The explanatory notes to the extracts from Moore are chiefly the author's. TO T. L. H., SIX YEARS OLD. 445 LEIGH HUNT. (1784-1859.) FOR half a century Leigh Hunt was before the public as a writer of essays, poems, plays, novels, and criticism. He was a native of Southgate, Middlesex, and educated at Christ Hospital. Certain extreme opinions on questions of religion and politics raised up against him many enemies, and he was charged with ingratitude for writing against Lord Byron, with whom he had lived in Italy. The last was a capital error, which he regretted; but Leigh Hunt survived to be a general favourite with the public and to enjoy the bounty of the crown. He was a man of a genial, happy temperament, and devotedly attached to literature. Some of his essays and poems will live, for they are marked by fine suggestive thought and observation, and, despite occasional conceits, by felicitous expression. TO T. L. H., SIX YEARS OLD, DURING A SICKNESS. SLEEP breathes at last from out thee, And balmy rest about thee Smooths off the day's annoy. I sit me down and think Sorrows, I've had severe ones, Ah, first-born of thy mother, My prayers shall hold thee round. To say "he has departed"- To feel impatient-hearted, Yet feel we must bear on ; Ah, I could not endure Yes, still he's fixed and sleeping, ITALIAN SCENE-RAVENNA. 'TIS morn, and never did a lovelier day For a warm eve, and gentle rains at night, And all the landscape-earth, and sky, and sea, The seats with boughs are shaded from above And in the midst, fresh whistling through the scene, ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. (1785-1842.) THIS poet, novelist, and miscellaneous writer, was born in Dumfriesshire. He began life as a stone mason; but his early literary ability was such that, being introduced to Cromek, the editor of "Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway song," and undertaking to procure contributions to that work, he sent to the Editor, as genuine remains, compositions of his own. Cromek had slighted some original pieces shewn to him as the production of Cunningham, and in retaliation, the young poet presented him with fabricated "antiques." These form the bulk of Cromek's collection. The cheat was long unsuspected; but the suspicious sagacity of the Ettrick Shepherd and others, especially Professor I THE SUN RISES BRIGHT IN FRANCE. 447 Wilson (see Blackwood's Magazine, Dec. 1819), ultimately demonstrated the imposition, much to the reputation of the real author. Mr. Cunningham repaired in 1810 to London, and, obtaining an appointment of trust in the sculptor Chantrey's studio, he settled himself there for life. His larger works are, the "Maid of Elvar," a species of epic in Spenserian stanzas, illustrative of Dumfries-shire in days of yore; and "Sir Marmaduke Maxwell," a wild tumultuous collection of Border superstitions. His reputation rests chiefly on his smaller pieces, which are intensely Scotch; vigorous and even splendid in their higher moods, affectingly pathetic in their softer strains. His novels, "Paul Jones," etc., are full of glittering description, and exaggerated and unnatural character. THE SUN RISES BRIGHT IN FRANCE.1 THE sun rises bright in France, But he has tint the blythe blink he had O it's nae my ain ruin That saddens aye my e'e, My lanely hearth burn'd bonnie, The bud comes back to summer, And the blossom to the bee; But I'll win back -O never, O I am leal to high Heaven, A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA.2 A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail, And bends the gallant mast; 1 "The Sun rises bright in France' is a sweet old thing, very popular both in Scotland and England. I got some stanzas from Surtees of Mainsforth: but those printed are from Cromek. It is uncertain to what period the song refers."-Hogg, Jacobite Relics. 2 I look upon the alteration of "It's hame and it's hame," and "A wet sheet and flowing sea," as among the best songs going. -Sir Walter Scott, Diary, 14th Nov. 1826. |