Honor to those whose words or deeds And by their overflow Raise us from what is low! Thus thought I, as by night I read The trenches cold and damp, ! The wounded from the battle-plain, The cheerless corridors, Pass through the glimmering gloom, And slow, as in a dream of bliss, As if a door in heaven should be The light shone and was spent. On England's annals, through the long A Lady with a Lamp shall stand Nor even shall be wanting here The palm, the lily, and the spear, The symbols that of yore Saint Filomena bore. THE DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH CAPE. A LEAF FROM KING ALFRED'S OROSIUS. OTHERE, the old sea-captain, To King Alfred, the Lover of Truth, His figure was tall and stately, Like a boy's his eye appeared; His hair was yellow as hay, But threads of a silvery gray Gleamed in his tawny beard. Hearty and hale was Othere, His cheek had the color of oak; With a kind of laugh in his speech, Like the sea-tide on a beach, As unto the King he spoke. And Alfred, King of the Saxons, "So far I live to the northward, "And there we hunted the walrus, The narwhale, and the seal; Ha! 't was a noble game! "To the northward stretched the desert, And like the lightning's flame It hailed the ships, and cried, "Sail on, | Though at times his heart beats wild Ye mariners, the night is gone.". And hurried landward far away, It said unto the forest, "Shout! It touched the wood-bird's folded wing, It whispered to the fields of corn, "Bow down, and hail the coming morn." It shouted through the belfry-tower, "Awake, O bell! proclaim the hour." It crossed the churchyard with a sigh, And said, "Not yet! in quiet lie.' For the beautiful Pays de Vaud ; |