LYRICS OF THE WAR.

PART FIRST.

ERHAPS no struggle in the world's history has given rise to such a profusion of soul-stirring song and immortal verse, as has this conflict of Right and Wrong, that has now raged these many months between the Northern and Southern sections of our unfortunate country. No history that shall be written of this terrible struggle will be quite complete that does not give appropriate space to the part the poets of our land have taken in stirring the popular heart. The press-the great educator of the people has teemed with loyal song and invocation, calculated to create enthusiasm and excite the latent energies of a loyal people in behalf of the country's just and popular cause. Out of the throng of fine compositions, there have been selected with great care, the best, and such in the main as are worthy of permanent preservation in the literature of the country. The reader surely must find something in this collection of gems, from the perusal of which he may not rise, without having been made stronger and better in the cause of his country and of humanity.

HARVARD STUDENT'S SONG.

BY JULIA WARD HOWE.

(Denkst du daran.)

REMEMBER ye the fateful gun that sounded

To Sumter's walls from Charleston's treacherous shore? Remember ye how hearts indignant bounded

When our first dead came back from Baltimore?
The banner fell that every breeze had flattered,
The hum of thrift was hushed with sudden woe?
We raised anew the emblems shamed and shattered,
And turned a front resolved to meet the foe.

Remember ye, how forth to battle faring

Our valiant ranks the fierce attack withstood. In all the terrors of the tumult bearing

The people's heart of dauntless lionhood?
How many a hand forsook its wonted labor,

Forsook its gains, as prizes fall'n in worth,
To wield with pain the warlike lance and sabre,
To conquer Peace with God, for all on earth?
Remember ye, how, out of boyhood leaping,

Our gallant mates stood ready for the fray;
As new-fledged eaglets rise, with sudden sweeping,
And meet unscared the dazzling front of day?
Our classic toil became inglorious leisure,

,

We praised the calm Horatian ode no more
But answered back with song the martial measure,
That held its throb above the cannon's roar.

Remember ye the pageants dim and solemn,

Where Love and Grief have borne the funeral pall?
The joyless marching of the mustered column,
With arms reversed to Him who conquers all?

Oh! give them back, thou bloody breast of Treason, They were our own, the darlings of our hearts! They come benumbed and frosted out of season, With whom the summer of our youth departs.

Look back no more! our time has come, my Brothers!
In Fate's high roll our names are written too;
We fill the mournful gaps left bare by others,

The ranks where Fear has never broken through!
Look, ancient walls, upon our stern election!
Keep, Echoes dear, remembrance of our breath!
And, gentle eyes and hearts of pure affection,
Light us, resolved to Victory or Death!

THE PRAYER OF A NATION.

BY WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH.

GOD of our fathers, hear our earnest cry!

Our hope, our strength, our refuge is with Thee! Confound our foes and make their legions fly! Strengthen our hosts and give them victory! Victory-victory—

Oh, God of Armies! give us victory!

Not for exemption from the toil and loss,

The pains, the woes, the horrors of the strife, But that with strong hearts we may bear the cross, And welcome death to save our nation's life:

Victory-victory

Oh, God of Battles! give us victory!