These constitute a state; And sovereign law, that state's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. Smit by her sacred frown, The fiend, Dissension, like a vapor sinks; And e'en the all-dazzling crown Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks; Such was this heaven-loved isle, Than Lesbos fairer and the Cretan shore! No more shall freedom smile? Shall Britons languish and be men no more? Since all must life resign, Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave 'Tis folly to decline, And steal inglorious to the silent grave. -Sir William Jones. Who many a glowing kiss had won. On her cheek an autumn flush Round her eyes her tresses fell,- And her hat, with shady brim, Sure, I said, Heaven did not mean Share my harvest and my home. -Thomas Hood. H TRUE NOBILITY CONOR and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Fortune in men has some small difference made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; The cobbler aproned, and the parson gowned, The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned. "What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl!" I'll tell you friend! a wise man and a fool. You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk, Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk, Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; The rest is all but leather or prunello. -Alexander Pope. W TO M. E. H. HEN you wake in your crib, With the wonder of darkness, To reach from your feebleness Will be good to and cherish you, Something you know And can rest upon blindly: (Your mother's, your mother's!) All knowledge, all power to you, Discouraging strangenesses So you wake in your bed, And the world and its kingdoms And you grope in Terror For the light, for the warmth, The assurance of life; But the blasts are ice-born, Mother, O Mother! God at His best to you, Out of the roaring, Falls on and urges you, Mightily, tenderly, Forth, as you clutch at it, Forth to the infinite Peace of the Grave. -William Ernest Henley. |