I wonder that the woodbine thrives and grows, And is indifferent to the nation's woes. For while these mornings shine, these blossoms bloom, Impious rebellion wraps the land in gloom. Nature, thou art unkind, Yon lichen, clinging to th' o'erhanging rock, One charm in bounteous nature, while the wind The groans of my poor country, bleeding in the dust. The air is musical with notes That gush from winged warblers' throats, And in the leafy trees I hear the drowsy hum of bees. Prone from the blinding sky Dance rainbow-tinted sunbeams, thick with motes, Daisies are shining, and the butterfly Wavers from flower to flower; yet in this wood The ruthless foeman stood, And every turf is drenched with human blood. O heartless flowers! O trees, clad in your robes of glistering sheen, These are the hours For mourning, not for gladness. While this smart Let birds refuse to sing, And flowers to bloom upon the lap of spring. Let Nature's face itself with tears o'erflow, In deepest anguish for a people's woe. While rank rebellion stands With blood of martyrs on his impious hands; And cruelty, and direst hate, Uplift their heads within th' afflicted state, Grow black with gloom, and from its thunder-lair Of treason sick, shall spew the monster forth, Be consecrate anew to Freedom and to God! THE SMACK IN SCHOOL. 0. W. Holmes. A DISTRICT School, not far away, Let off in one tremendous kiss! "What's that?" the startled master cries; I thaw him kith Thuthanna Peathe!" Will hung his head in fear and shame, With smile suppressed, and birch upraised, Be guilty of an act so rude! Before the whole set school to boot- 'Twas she, herself, sir," sobbed the lad, "I did not mean to be so bad; But when Susannah shook her curls, EXTRACT FROM HON. DANIEL S. DICKINSON'S SPEECH AT UNION SQUARE, N. Y., April 20, 1861. WE are called upon to act. There is no time for hesitation or indecision-no time for haste and excitement. It is a time when the people should rise in the majesty of their might, stretch forth their strong arm and silence the angry waves of tumult. It is time the people should command peace. It is a question between union and anarchy-between law and disorder. All politics for the time being are and should be committed to the resurrection of the grave. The question should be, "Our country, our whole country, and nothing but the country." "Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die." We should go forward in a manner becoming a great people. But six months since, the material elements of our country were never greater. To-day, by the fiat of madness, we are plunged in distress and threatened with political ruin, anarchy and annihilation. It becomes us to stay the hands of this spirit of disunion. While I would prosecute this war in a manner becoming a civilized and a Christian people, I would do so in no vindictive spirit. I would do it as Brutus set the signet to the death-warrant of his son-"Justice is satisfied, and Rome is free." I love my country; I love this Union. It was the first vision of my early years; it is the last ambition of my public life. Upon its altar I have surrendered my choicest hopes. I had fondly hoped that in approaching age it was to beguile my solitary hours, and I will stand by it as long as there is a Union to stand by; and when the ship of the Union shall crack and groan, when the skies lower and threaten, when the lightnings flash, the thunders roar, the storms beat and the waves run mountain-high, if the ship of State goes down, and the Union perishes, I would rather perish with it than survive its destruction. THE BELLS.-Edgar A. Poe. HEAR the sledges with the bells- What a world of merriment their melody foretells! In the icy air of night! To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats Oh, from out the sounding cells, What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! On the Future! how it tells To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! Hear the loud alarum bells- What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, With a desperate desire, What a tale their terror tells How they clang, and clash, and roar! On the bosom of the palpitating air! And the clanging, How the darger ebbs and flows; Yet the ear distinctly tells, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells- Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, In the clamor and the clangor of the bells! Hear the tolling of the bells- What a world of solemn thought their monody compels How we shiver with affright At the melancholy menace of their tone! From the rust within their throats And the people-ah, the people- And who tolling, tolling, tolling, On the human heart a stone- And their king it is who tolls; With the pean of the bells! Keeping time, time, time, To the throbbing of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, To the sobbing of the bells; As he knells, knells, knells, |