6. And soon that toil shall end:

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows: reeds shall bend
Soon o'er thy shelter'd nest.

7. Thou'rt gone! the abyss' of heaven
Hath swallow'd up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart :

8. He who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread ǎlōne,

Will lead my steps ăright.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

OF

SECTION XI.

I.

45. THE LANDSMAN'S SONG.

H, who would be bound to the barren sea,
If he could dwell on land-

Where his step is ever bōth firm and free,
Where flowers arise, like sweet girls' eyes,
And rivulets sing, like birds in spring?—
For me-I will take my stand
On land, on land!

Forever and ever on solid land!

2. I've sailed on the riotous, roaring sea,
With an undaunted band:

Yet my village home more pleasèth me,
With its valleys gay, where maidens stray,

And its grassy mead, where the white flocks feed

And so I will take my stand,

-

On land, on land!

Forever and ever on solid land!

1 A býss', a gulf; a bottomless depth; hence, any deep or immeasurable space; often, hell, or the bottomless pit.

3. Some say they could die on the salt, salt sea! (But have they been loved on land?)

Some rave of the ocean in drunken glee—

Of the music born on a gusty morn,

When the tempèst is waking, and billows are breaking,
And lightning flashing, and the thick rain dashing,

And the winds and the thunders shout forth the sea wonders→ Such things may give joy to ǎ dreaming boy

But for me,-I will take my stand

On land, on land!

Forever and ever on solid land!

.

II.

46. THE SAILOR'S SONG.

HE sea! the sea! the open sea!

TH

B. W. PROCTER.

The blue, the fresh, the ever free!

Without a mark, without a bound,

It runnèth the earth's wide regions round;
It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies;
Or like a cradled creature lies.

2. I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!
I am where I would ever be ;

With the blue above, and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go ;

If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

3. I love, oh, how I love to ride

On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,
When every mad wave drowns the moon,
Or whistles aloft his tempèst tune,
And tells how goëth the world below,
And why the sou'west blasts do blow.

4 I never was on the dull, tame shōre,
But I loved the great sea mōre and more,
And backward flew to her billowy breast,
Like a bird that seekèth its mother's nest
And a mother she was and is to me;
For I was born on the open sea!

5. The waves were white, and red the morn,
In the noisy hour when I was born;
And the whale it whistled, the porpoise roll'd,
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild
As welcom'd to life the ocean-child!

6. I've lived since then, in calm and strife,
Full fifty summers a sailor's life,

With wealth to spend and a power to range,
But never have sought nor sigh'd for change;
And Death, whenever he comes to me,

Shall come on the wild unbounded sea!

B. W. PROCTER.

T

III.

47. THE CAVERN BY THE SEA.

HERE is a cavern in the island of Hoonga, one of the Tonga islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, which can be entered only by diving into the sea, and has no other light than what is reflected from the bottom of the water.

2. A young chief discovered it accidentally while diving after a turtle, and the use which he made of his discovery will probably be sung in mōre than one Eu'rope'an language, so beautifully is it adapted for a tale in verse.

3. There was a tyrannical' governor at Văvaoo, against whom one of the chiefs formed a plan of insurrection: it was betrayed, and the chief, with all his family and kin, was ordered to be destroyed. He had a beautiful daughter, betrothed to a chief of high rank, and she also was included in the sentence.

4. The youth who had found the cavern, and kept the secret to himself, loved this damsel. He told her the danger to which she and all of her family were place her safety in his hands. in his canoe, and described the as he skillfully plied the oar in

1 Tý răn ́nic al, unjustly severe in government; cruel.

'In` sur rec' tion, a rising against the authority of a city or state; a

exposed, and persuaded her to With her consent, he placed her place of her proposed retreat, the direction of the cavern.

rebellion; an attempt to overthrow a government.

3 Betrothed', contracted or en gaged to be married.

5. Like the rest of her countrywomen, the maid was an expert swimmer. Having reached the spot, they dived into the water, and entered the cavern, a large and commodious apartment, about fifty feet in length, and nearly the same in height, beautifully ornamented with sparry' incrustations.

6. Here he brought her the choicèst food, the finest clothing, mats for her bed, and sandal-wood' oil to perfume' herself: here he visited her as often as was consistent with prudence ; and here, as may be imagined, this Tonga Leän'der' wooed and won the maid, whom, to make the interest complete, he had long loved in secret, when he had no hope. Meantime he prepared, with all his dependents, male and female, to emigrate in secret to the Fiji (fē’jē) islands.

7. The intention was so well concealed, that they embarked in safety, and his people asked him, at the point of their departure, if he would not take with him a Tonga wife; and accordingly, to their great astonishment, having steered close to a rock, he desired them to wait while he went into the sea to fetch her, jumped overboard, and, just as they were beginning to be seriously alarmed at his long disappearance, he rose with his mistress from the water.

8. This story is not deficient in that which all such stories should have to be perfectly delightful,—a fortunate conclusion. The party remained at the Fijis till the oppressor died, and then returned to Văvaoo, where they enjoyed a long and happy life. This is related as an authentic tradition.

'Sparry, made of spar, a substance frequently found in caverns, and formed by water mixed with lime and other substances, which trickling very slowly from above, presents the appearance of icicles hanging from the roof; and sometimes, dropping also on the floor, seem like inverted icicles, or icicles upside down. These are what are called sparry incrustations. When the incrustation hangs from the ceiling, with the sharp point down ward, it is called a stalactite; when it rises from the floor, with the point upward, it is called a stalagmite.

2 Săn' dal-wood, a wood with a very strong and sweet perfume, which grows in the East Indies.

"Le ǎn' der, the famous youth of Abydos, who was in love with Hero, the priestess of Venus, and swam nightly across the Hellespont, to visit her, and returned before daybreak. He was at last drowned one stormy night, as he was making his accustomed visit. Next morning his corpse was washed upon the shore, whereupon Hero threw herself into the sea. The Hellespont is what is now called the Dardanelles, a narrow strait be tween Europe and Asiatic Turkey.

IV.

48. OUR NATIVE SHIPS.

1.

UR native ships! in fleet career, they linger not behind, Where gallant sails from other lands court favoring tide and wind.

With banners on the breeze, they leap as gayly o'er the foam, As stately barks from prouder seas, that long have learn'd to roam.

2.

The Indian wave, with luring smiles, swept round them bright to-day;

And havens of Atlantic isles are opening on their way;

Ere yet these evening shadows close, or this frail song is o'er, Full many a straining mast will rise to greet a foreign shōre.

3.

High up the lashing northern deep, where glimmering watchlights beam,

Away in beauty where the stars in tropic brightness gleam, Where'er the sea-bird wets her beak, or blows the stormy gale, On to the water's furthèst verge our ships majestic sail.

4.

They dip their keels in every stream that swells beneath the sky; And where old ocean's billows roll, their lofty pennants fly : They furl their sheets in threatening clouds that float across the main,

To link with love earth's distant bays, in many a golden chain.