LINES FOR MUSIC. BY T. S. FAY. OVER forest and meadow the night breeze is stealing, I have watched from the beach which your presence enchanted, In the star-lighted heaven each beautiful gem, And I sighed as I thought, ere the break of the morning, In the ripples of silver which roll to the shore. But when summer has fled, and yon flowers have faded, And the fields and the forests are withered and sere LINES FOR MUSIC. 121 When the friends now together, by distance are parted, I lingered at evening to bid you adieu; When I paused by the stream, with the stars so delighted, And wished I might linger for ever with you? Oh, forget not the time when that night-breeze was stealing, Though desolate oceans between us may roar, The beach-and the stars-and the waters revealing Thoughts bright as the ripples which break on the shore. LOOK ALOFT. BY J. LAWRENCE, JUN. [The following lines were suggested by an anecdote, said to have been related by the late Dr. Godman, of the ship-boy who was about to fall from the rigging, and was only saved by the mate's characteristic exclamation, "Look aloft, you lubber."] In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale If the friend, who embraced in prosperity's glow Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye, Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set. LOOK ALOFT. Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart- "Look aloft," from the darkness and dust of the tomb, To that soil where "affection is ever in bloom." And oh! when death comes in terrors, to cast In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart, 123 TO A HUMMING-BIRD BY J. R. SUTERMEISTER. BIRD of the Summer bower! Whose burnished plumage to the air is given, Thou seemst to Fancy's eye An animated blossom born in air; Which breathes and bourgeons in the golden sky, And sheds its odours there. Thou seemst a rainbow hue Touched by the sunbeam into life and light; As cuts thy rosy wing the welkin through Thou art not born of Earth! Thy home is in the free and pathless air! |