rose;

This done, a festal company unite

In choral song; and, while the uplifted

cross

Of Jesus goes before, the child is borne Uncovered to his grave. Her piteous loss The lonesome mother cannot choose but mourn;

Yet soon by Christian faith is grief subdued, And joy attends upon her fortitude.

If never more within their shady round Those lofty-minded law-givers shall meet, Peasant and lord, in their appointed seat, Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty.

WE can endure that he should waste our lands, flame

Return us to the dust from which we came ; Such food a tyrant's appetite demands:

With firmer soul, yet labour to regain
Our ancient freedom; else 'twere worse

than vain

To gather round the bier these festal shows.
A garland fashioned of the pure white rose
Becomes not one whose father is a slave:
Oh! bear the infant covered to his grave!
These venerable mountains now inclose
A people sunk in apathy and fear.
If this endure, farewell, for us, all good!
The awful light of heavenly innocence
Will fail to illuminate the infant's bier;
And guilt and shame, from which is no
defence,

Descend on all that issues from our blood.

THE OAK OF GUERNICA.

The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde in his account of Biscay, is the most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1476, after hearing mass in the Church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to maintain their fueros (privileges). What other interest belongs to it in the minds of this people will appear from the following

SUPPOSED ADDRESS TO THE SAME. 1810.

OAK of Guernica! Tree of holier power Than that which in Dodona did enshrine (So faith too fondly deemed) a voice divine, Heard from the depths of its aërial bower, How canst thou flourish at this blighting hour? [to thee, What hope, what joy can sunshine bring Or the soft breezes from the Atlantic sea,

hands

Spain may be overpowered, and he possess, For his delight, a solemn wilderness, Where all the brave lie dead. But when of bands,

Which he will break for us, he dares to speak, Of benefits, and of a future day When our enlightened minds shall bless his sway, [weak; Then, the strained heart of fortitude proves Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare [strength to bear. That he has power to inflict what we lack

AVAUNT all specious pliancy of mind
In men of low degree, all smooth pretence !
I better like a blunt indifference
And self-respecting slowness, disinclined
To win me at first sight: and be there
joined
[reserve,
Patience and temperance with this high
Honour that knows the path and will not

swerve;

Affections, which, if put to proof, are kind; And piety towards God. Such men of old Were England's native growth; and, throughout Spain,

Forests of such do at this day remain; Then for that country let our hopes be bold;

For matched with these shall policy prove vain, (gold. Her arts, her strength, her iron, and her

1810.

O'ERWEENING statesmen have full long relied

On fleets and armies, and external wealth:

To the paternal floor; or turn aside,
In the thronged city, from the walks of gain,
As being all unworthy to detain
A soul by contemplation sanctified.
There are who cannot languish in this strife,
Spaniards of every rank, by whom the good
Of such higl. course was felt and under-
stood;
[a life,
Who to their country's cause have bound
Erewhile by solemn consecration given
To labour, and to prayer, to nature, and to
heaven.*

THE FRENCH AND THE SPANISH GUERILLAS.

blast

HUNGER, and sultry heat, and nipping [by night From bleak hill-top, and length of march Through heavy swamp, or over snow-clad height, [past, These hardships ill sustained, these dangers The roving Spanish bands are reached at last, [flight Charged, and dispersed like foam; but as a Of scattered quails by signs to reunite, So these, and, heard of once again, are chased

With combinations of long-practised art And newly-kindled hope; but they are fled, Gone are they, viewless as the buried dead; Where now?-Their sword is at the foe[thwart, And thus from year to year his walk they And hang like dreams around his guilty

man's heart!

bed.

Redoubted Viriatus breathes again;
And Mina, nourished in the studious shade,
With that great leader* vies, who, sick of
strife

And bloodshed, longed in quiet to be laid
In some green island of the western main.

space;

1811.

THE power of armies is a visible thing, Formal, and circumscribed in time and [trace But who the limits of that power shall Which a brave people into light can bring Or hide, at will,-for freedom combating, By just revenge inflamed? No foot may chase,

No eye can follow to a fatal place That power, that spirit, whether on the wing [wind Like the strong wind, or sleeping like the Within its awful caves.-From year to year Springs this indigenous produce far and No craft this subtle element can bind, Rising like water from the soil, to find every nook a lip that it may cheer.

In

near;

1811.

HERE pause: the poet claims at least this praise, That virtuous liberty hath been the scope Of his pure song which did not shrink from hope

In the worst moment of these evil days; From hope, the paramount duty that Heaven lays, [heart.

For its own honour, on man's suffering
Never may from our souls one truth depart,
That an accursed thing it is to gaze
On prosperous tyrants with a dazzled eye;
Nor, touched with due abhorrence of their
guilt
[spilt,

For whose dire ends tears flow, and blood is
And justice labours in extremity,
Forget thy weakness, upon which is built,
O wretched man, the throne of tyranny!

fled.

* See Laborde's character of the Spanish people: from him the sentiment of these last two lines is taken.

HUMANITY, delighting to behold A fond reflection of her own decay,

• Sertorius.

Hath painted winter like a traveller-old, Propped on a staff-and, through the sullen day,

In hooded mantle, limping o'er the plain, As though his weakness were disturbed by pain:

Or, if a juster fancy should allow
An undisputed symbol of command,
The chosen sceptre is a withered bough,
Infirmly grasped within a palsied hand.
These emblems suit the helpless and forlorn,
But mighty winter the device shall scorn.

For he it was-dread winter! who beset, Flinging round van and rear his ghastly net, That host,-when from the regions of the pole

They shrunk, insane ambition's barren goal, That host, as huge and strong as e'er defied Their God, and placed their trust in human pride!

As fathers persecute rebellious sons,

He smote the blossoms of their warrior youth;

He called on frost's inexorable tooth

Life to consume in manhood's firmest hold; Nor spared the reverend blood that feebly

runs;

For why, unless for liberty enrolled

And sacred home, ah! why should hoary age be bold?

Fleet the Tartar's reinless steed, But fleeter far the pinions of the wind, Which from Siberian caves the monarch freed,

[kind. And sent him forth, with squadrons of his And bade the snow their ample backs bestride,

And to the battle ride. No pitying voice commands a halt, No courage can repel the dire assault; Distracted, spiritless, benumbed, and blind, Whole legions sink—and, in one instant, [descry, Burial and death: look for them-and When morn returns, beneath the clear blue sky,

find

A soundless waste, a trackless vacancy!

ON THE SAME OCCASION.

YE storms, resound the praises of your king!

And ve mild seasons-in a sunny clime, Midway on some high hill, while father Time

Looks on delighted-meet in festal ring,

And loud and long of winter's triumph sing! Sing ye, with blossoms crowned, and fruits, and flowers, [showers,

Of winter's breath surcharged with sleety
And the dire flapping of his hoary wing!
Knit the blithe dance upon the soft green
grass;
[your gain;
With feet, hands, eyes, looks, lips, report
Whisper it to the billows of the main,
And to the aerial zephyrs as they pass,
That old decrepit winter-He hath slain,
That host, which rendered all your bounties
vain !

By Moscow self-devoted to a blaze
Of dreadful sacrifice; by Russian blood
Lavished in fight with desperate hardi-
hood;

The unfeeling elements no claim shall raise
To rob our human nature of just praise
For what she did and suffered. Pledges
Of a deliverance absolute and pure [sure
She gave, if faith might tread the beaten
ways
(High

Of Providence. But now did the Most Exalt his still small voice;-to quell that host

Gathered his Power, a manifest Ally; He whose heaped waves confounded the proud boast

Of Pharaoh, said to Famine, Snow, and Frost,

Finish the strife by deadliest victory!

Laudes, quam

clarius indicant

Pierides; neque Si chartæ sileant quod bene feceris, Mercedem tuleris."-HOR. Car. 8, Lib. 4. WHEN the soft hand of sleep had closed the latch

On the tired household of corporeal sense, And Fancy, keeping unreluctant watch, Was free her choicest favours to dispense; I saw, in wondrous pérspective displayed, A landscape more august than happiest skill

Of pencil ever clothed with light and shade; An intermingled pomp of vale and hill, City, and naval stream, suburban grove, And stately forest where the wild deer rove;

"From all this world's encumbrance did himself assoil."-SPENSER.

Opening before the sun's triumphant eye,
Issued, to sudden view, a radiant form!
Earthward it glided with a swift descent:
Saint George himself this visitant may be;
And ere a thought could ask on what intent
He sought the regions of humanity,
A thrilling voice was heard, that vivified
City and field and flood,-aloud it cried,

"Though from my celestial home,
Like a champion armed I come;
On my helm the dragon crest,
And the red cross on my breast;
1, the guardian of this land,
Speak not now of toilsome duty--
Well obeyed was that command,
Hence bright days of festive beauty;
Haste, virgins, haste !-the flowers which

summer gave

Have perished in the field;

[yield

But the green thickets plenteously shall Fit garlands for the brave,

That will be welcome, if by you entwined! Haste, virgins, haste ;-and you, ye matrons