AUTUMN now, her smiles withdrawing,
Hastily forsakes our fields;
Winter stern, her pleasures flawing,
Bids us quit the joy she yields.
On his icy car appearing,
(Chilling damp his form surrounds,)
Cutting gales his passage clearing,
From the mountain heights he bounds.
With the voice of rattling thunder
Roars his chariot, as it flies;
Lightning, cleaving oaks asunder,
Flashes from his fiery eyes.
Calmer now he drives, while legions
Of his hoary armies drop
Lightly from the upper regions,
Whitening plain and mountain top.
Oft upon the cottage-thatches,
Covered with the snowy white,
Many a thicket-songster catches,
Chirping loud, the housewife's sight.
For the warbling season's over,
And the minstrels seek their hire;
Round the cottages they hover,
Food as wages they require.
Now the evening mists are stealing
Where declining Phoebus peeps:
Winter, with his breath congealing,
Hardens nature as she sleeps.
Bleak's the wind, the night is dreary,
Wretched is the traveller's lot!
Chilled his limbs with cold, and weary,
By the thoughtless world forgot.
Hope forgets him not, but treading
Softly by him, smooths his way,
And her cheering lustre shedding,
Brightens up the future day.
Shews him Winter quick retreating,
Flora and her virgin band
Sweetly in the valleys meeting,
Strewing comfort o'er the land.
TO feminine benevolence
Miranda joins the manly sense:
In native modesty she trips,
The zephyrs kiss her ruby lips.
What emerald can dare to vie
In brightness with her radiant eye?
Love in her dimples makes his bed
Of roses-
-by her blushes fed:
He gave her hair its glossy hue;
"Twas he that bade her eyes be blue.
He framed her sweet enchanting sinile,
His idle moments to beguile.
Not satisfied to deck her face,
He robbed his mother of her grace;
And, adding negligence to theft,
His power of wounding with her left.
So sweetly beautiful-so mild
She looked-'twas then the wanton child
Half sorrowing, cried, " Behold one lass
Whose charms e'en Venus' self surpass."
A PUNNING VINDICATION.
HAL'S blamed for not leading a soberer life,
For spending his cash, and neglecting his wife;
Just list to the truth, and then judge for yourself
If the man's not belied by some slanderous elf:-
He, in love with a lass, went directly to court her,
Then married, and now scarce does aught but
sup-port-er.
THE NEGRO BOY'S TALE.
WRITTEN ON SEEING A NEGRO BOY BEGGING."
IN sultry Afric's wide domains
Heaven's kindest gifts did I enjoy ;
And lived amidst my native plains,
A simple, happy, negro boy.
To chase the tyrants of the woods,
That dared our flocks and herds annoy,
Or dive beneath the silver floods,
Amused the happy negro boy.
But pleasure soon was changed to pain,
(What pleasure is without alloy?)
For soon across the stormy main
Was forced the wretched negro boy.
The inhuman whites, for cruel ends,
My hapless kindred did decoy ;
And 'midst his weeping, captive friends,
They chained the wretched negro boy.
To India, doomed to slavery, sent,
One bought me into his employ;
And with him on the seas I went,
A poor afflicted negro boy.
A wreck our ship became at last,
The waves each seaman did destroy;
And on your shores, alone, was cast,
The poor afflicted negro boy.
Now here condemned by fate to roam,
His breast estranged from every joy,
No soothing friend-no sheltering home,-
O! pity the poor negro boy.
Remember, life is but a dream,
And happiness a glittering toy:
And you that now so happy seem,
May soon be like the negro boy.
HOPE is the anchor and stay of our souls,
The star which alone shines with glimmering light, When the sun of prosperity far from us rolls,
And leaves us involved in the shadows of night.
Who in grief or disease has not felt its controul,
Has not hailed it as convicts the wished-for reprieve,
Or felt its soft influence glide on the soul,
Like the soft falling dew in a calm summer's eve? When the voyage of life proves stormy and drear, When the soul of the sad cup of sorrow is drinking, And ready to plunge in the gulf of despair,
'Tis bright Hope alone that prevents it from sinking. As the lamp in the gloom of the sepulchre shining, More resplendent appears from the darkness around; So Hope, when in fortune or health we're declining, More cheering, more radiant in brightness is found.
SOLOMON'S SONG.
Chapter II. from Verse X. to Verse XIV.
"T WAS my beloved spake, I heard him say,
Rise up, my love, my fair one come away;
Lo! winter's fled, the skies look clear,
And rainy clouds no more appear
The flowers, which clothe each glad reviving field,
No longer droop, but fragrant odours yield;
The birds in notes melodious sing,
And chearful usher in the spring;
With slow-stepped pace the turtle comes along,
And murmurs out her melancholy song;
In thriving state the figs are seen
Invested in fresh-coloured green;
Plenty, within sweets-dropping vineyards, dwells,
And grapes mature diffuse their odorous smells;-
Awake, my love, make no delay,
Awake, my fair one, come away!
ADIEU, my love, my life, adieu!
Hard is the task, yet we must part;
Heaven grant each flattering hope prove true,
Health brace thy frame, and joy thy heart.
But do not, when thou'rt far away,
To all thy vows inconstant prove;
While I, compelled apart to stay,
Am pining for my absent love.
Adieu! nor check that starting tear,
Does it not prove our union's sweet?
A pledge no smile our checks shall wear,
Till in each others arms we meet.
O soon may that dear moment be,
Soon may our souls that pleasure know;
For every
hour away from thee,
Will seem a lingering age of woe.
THANK Heaven! again, my love, we're met, And met, oh never more to part;
Then let us every care forget,
Let love and joy relume the heart.
This is indeed a rapturous minute,
Sweeter than all we've known before';
There seems to be a promise in it
That fortune yet may bless us more.
Come kiss me, love-for trust me this,
No fair, since thou, these lips has pressed;
Oh, when thou gav'st thy parting kiss,
'Twas but to seal thee in my breast.
Thine image, there, while thou wert gone
To gain from health its rosy hue,
Prompted my sighs at night and morn,
And kept me undefiled and true.
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