I BLEW, I blew, the trumpet loudly sounding; The field is won; the minstrels loud are crying, Enough, if I alone recall the strain I blew, I blew, I blew. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. -From "Such as they Are." GOD BLESS US ALL. God bless us all! With Tiny Tim, God bless us all, the circle round, 117 God bless the golden heads a-row God ease the weary ones who bear We sound the heart-felt prayer and hymn, MARGARAT E. Sangster. -From "On the Road Home," -)(NOTES. CARY, PHOEBE. "A Woman's Conclusion," oneof Phoebe Cary's best poems, may be found in THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY, Vol. I. No. 4, page 476. DEVERE. A study of the poems of Aubrey Thomas DeVere, son of Aubrey DeVere, accompanied by portrait, appeared in the first volume of THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY. The volumes used in this study were sent to the editor through the courtesy of Mr. DeVere. DICKINSON, EMILY. "Success" was published in "A Masque of Poets," at the request of "H. H.," the author's fellow-townswoman and friend. DICKINSON, ELIZABETH LOWE. "In His Name" was written for the society of the King's Daughters. "ANNIE LAURIE." Mr. Chambers tells us that this song was written by a Mr. Douglass, who paid court to Annie, one of the daughters of Sir Robert Laurie. He was unsuccessful in his suit, as she married a Mr. Ferguson; but he immortalized her name in the vain attempt to engross her affection. The ordinary modern version of the song is no improvement on the original, which may be found in Alexander Whitelaw's excellent "Book of Scottish Song," published in 1875. J. C. Gavin writes in the Chicago Herald: "I was raised on the next farm to James Laurie, Annie Laurie's father. I was personally acquainted with both Annie and her father, and also the author of the song. Knowing these facts, I have been requested by my friends to give the public the benefit of my knowledge, which I consented to do. Annie Laurie was born in 1817, and was about seventeen years old when the incident occurred which gave rise to the song bearing her name. James Laurie, Annie's father, was a farmer who lived on and owned a very large farm called Tharaglestown," in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He hired a great deal of help, and among those he employed a man by the name of Wallace to act as foreman, and while in his employ Mr. Wallace fell in love with Annie, which fact her father learned, and forthwith discharged him. He went to his home, which was in Maxwelton, and was taken sick the very night he reached there, and the next morning, when Annie Laurie heard of it, she came to his bedside and waited on him until he died, and on his death-bed he composed the song." 46 As the original version was published in C. K. Sharpe's "Ballad Book" in 1824, as "an old song," Mr. Gavin's statements are not correct. A modern version of the song is herewith given. MAXWELTON braes are bonnie Where early fa's the dew, And it's there that Annie Laurie That e'er the sun shone on, Like dew on the gowan lying Is the fa' o' her fairy feet; And like the winds in summer sighing, And she's a' the world to me; CARY, ALICE & PHOEBE. Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary, edited by Mary Clemmer Ames. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1873. 12m0, pp. 7 and 306. CARY, PHOEBE. Poems of Faith, Hope and Love. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1868. 16m0, pp. 5 and 249. RYAN, MARAH ELLIS. Miscellaneous poems. GOULD, ELIZABETH PORter. Stray Pebbles from the Shores of Thought. Boston: T. O. Metcalf & Co., 1892. 18mo, pp. 7 and 220. RILEY, JAMES. Poems. Boston: T. B. Noonan & Co., 1888. 12m0, pp. 8 and 119. IBID. Miscellaneous poems. DEVERE, SIR AUBREY. Julian the Apostate, and The Duke of Mercia. London: Basil M. Pickering, 1858. 16m0, pp. 20 and 343. IBID. Mary Tudor. New edition. London: George Bell & Sons, 1884. 16m0, pp. 43 and 330. IBID. Sonnets. London: Basil M. Pickering, 1875. 16m0, pp. 9 and 104. GIBSON, R. E. LEE. Early poems. St. Louis: Commercial Printing Co., 1883. 12mo, pp. 6 and THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY. VOL. VI. NATHANIEL P. WILLIS. NATHAN [ATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS was born in Portland, Me., January 20th, 1806. His father was the venerable Nathaniel Willis, who in 1816 founded the Boston Recorder, the first religious newspaper ever published. Young Willis received an excellent preparatory education in the Boston Latin School, and then entered Yale College, where he was graduated in 1827. Previously he had written and published anonymously some poems of great merit, chiefly of a religious character, and won a prize of fifty dollars, at that time a very liberal reward. Soon after leaving college Mr. Willis collected and published his poems in a volume which attracted much attention. His tastes and talents induced him to devote himself to literature as a pursuit, and soon after he was graduated he assumed the editorship of the "Legendary," a series of volumes of tales published by S. G. Goodrich. He next established, in Boston, the American Monthly Magazine. At the expiration of ten years the magazine was merged into the New York Mirror, the most flourishing literary journal of the day. Mr. Willis then found opportunity to visit Europe, a long cherished desire, and in sparkling letters communicated to the Mirror his first impressions of the Old World. While residing in England in 1835 Mr. Willis married Mary Leighton Stace, a daughter of Commissary-General William Stace, commander of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Returning to this country, he purchased a small farm in the valley of the Susquehanna, where he built a pretty cottage and hoped to pass the rest of his days in rural and literary employment. His "Letters from Under a Bridge," written from "Glenmary," in 1838, contained some of the most simply beautiful and truthful pictures of American country life ever penned. But trouble came to the inmates of "Glenmary." Mr. Willis's publishers failed; the dreamer had to forsake the quiet vale of the Susquehanna and plunge once more into the battle of life. He engaged actively in newspaper life No. 3. and visited Europe a second time. It was during that visit he published a volume of his poetry and prose, under the title of "Loiterings of Travel," and two plays, "Bianca Visconti" and "Tortesa the Usurer." Upon his return to America it was obvious his health was failing. Intense application, together with the shock occasioned by the death of his wife, completely prostrated him. He again went abroad for a brief stay, during which he was attacked by brain-fever. When sufficiently restored to health, he returned to this country and helped to establish the Home Journal, a literary weekly, which was very successful from the outset. In 1846 Mr. Willis married Cornelia, only daughter of Hon. Joseph Grinnell, of New Bedford, Mass. Their residence from that time till his death, which occurred on the 20th of January, 1867, was a charming estate on the banks of the Hudson. As a poet Nathaniel P. Willis has high rank, and all his work claims remembrance. I. R. W. THE LEPER. "ROOM for the leper! Room! And, as he came, |