[1853]
AS 1 when, on Carmel’s sterile steep,
The ancient prophet bowed the knee,
And seven times sent his servant forth
To look toward the distant sea;
There came at last a little cloud,
Scarce larger than the human hand,
Spreading and swelling till it broke
In showers on all the herbless land;
And hearts were...
John Brown OF OSSAWATOMIE spake on his dying day:
“I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in Slavery’s pay;
But let some poor slave-mother whom I have striven to free,
With her children, from the gallows-stair put up a prayer for me!”
John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die;
And lo! a poor slave-mother with her little child pressed nigh...
THY 1 error, Frémont, simply was to act
A brave man’s part, without the statesman’s tact,
And, taking counsel but of common sense,
To strike at cause as well as consequence.
O, never yet since Roland wound his horn
At Roncesvalles has a blast been blown
Far-heard, wide-echoed, startling as thine own,
Heard from the van of freedom’s hope...
[On hearing the bells ring on the passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery.]
IT is done!
Clang of bell and roar of gun
Send the tidings up and down.
How the belfries rock and reel!
How the great guns, peal on peal,
Fling the joy from town to town!
Ring, O bells!
Every stroke exulting...
From “Catiline,” Act V. Sc. 2.
SOUND all to arms! (A flourish of trumpets.)
Call in the captains,—(To an officer.)
I would speak with them!
(The officer goes.)Now, Hope! away,—and welcome gallant Death!
Welcome the clanging shield, the trumpet’s yell,—
Welcome the fever of the mounting blood,
That makes...
Before proud Rome’s imperial throne
In mind’s unconquered mood,
As if the triumph were his own,
The dauntless captive stood.
None, to have seen his free-born air,
Had fancied him a captive there.
Though, through the crowded streets of Rome,
With slow and stately tread,
Far from his own loved island home,
That day...
It was the wild midnight,—
A storm was on the sky;
The lightning gave its light,
And the thunder echoed by.
The torrent swept the glen,
The ocean lashed the shore;
Then rose the Spartan men,
To make their bed in gore!
Swift from the deluge ground
Three hundred took the shield;
Then, silent, gathered...
From the German by Charles Timothy Brooks
SWORD, on my left side gleaming,
What means thy bright eye’s beaming?
It makes my spirit dance
To see thy friendly glance.
Hurrah!
“A valiant rider bears me;
A free-born German wears me:
That makes my eye so bright;
That is the sword’s delight.”
Hurrah!...
From the German by Rossiter W. Raymond
THE WEARY night is o’er at last!
We ride so still, we ride so fast!
We ride where Death is lying.
The morning wind doth coldly pass,
Landlord! we ’ll take another glass,
Ere dying.
Thou, springing grass, that art so green,
Shall soon be rosy red, I ween,
My blood the hue...
[1590]
now glory to the Lord of hosts, from whom all glories are!
And glory to our sovereign liege, King Henry of Navarre!
Now let there be the merry sound of music and the dance,
Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France!
And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the waters,
Again let raptures light the...
