For thee her poet's lyre 1 is wreathed,
Her marble wrought, her music breathed;
For thee she rings the birthday bells;
Of thee her babes' first lisping tells;
For thine her evening prayer is said,
At palace couch and cottage bed:
Her soldier, closing with the foe,
Gives for thy sake a deadlier blow;
His plighted maiden, when she fears
For him, the joy of her young years,
Thinks of thy fate, and checks her tears;
And she, the mother of thy boys,
Though in her eye and faded cheek
Is read the grief she will not speak,

The memory of her buried joys, —
And even she who gave thee birth
Will, by their pilgrim-circled hearth,2

Talk of thy doom without a sigh ;
For thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's,
One of the few, th' immortal names

That were not born to die.

1

Lyre: a kind of harp.

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.

2 Pilgrim-circled hearth: the hearth of the widow of Bozzaris, round which travellers from foreign lands gathered to hear his story and that of Greek Independence.

THE NATION'S DEAD.

FOUR hundred thousand men,
The brave, the good, the true,
In tangled wood, in mountain glen,
On battle plain, in prison pen,
Lie dead for me and you.

Four hundred thousand of the brave
Ilave made our ransomed soil their grave,
For me and you,

Good friend, for me and you.

In many a fevered swamp,
By many a black bayou,1

In many a cold and frozen camp,
The weary sentinel ceased his tramp,
And died for me and you.

From western plain to ocean tide

Are stretched the graves of those who died

For me and you,

Good friend, for me and you.

On many a bloody plain

Their ready swords they drew,

And poured their life-blood like the rain,

A home, a heritage, to gain,

To gain for me and you.

1 Bayou (bi-oo'): the narrow outlet of a lake or a channel of water or

creek in the valley of the lower Mississippi.

Our brothers mustered by our side,

They marched, and fought, and bravely died

For me and you,

Good friend, for me and you.

Up many a fortress wall

They charged, those boys in blue; 'Mid surging smoke and volleyed ball, The bravest were the first to fall,

Those noble men, the nation's pride,
Four hundred thousand men, have died
For me and you,

Good friend, for me and you.

In treason's prison-hold

Their martyr spirits grew

To stature like the saints of old,
While, amid agonies untold,

They starved for me and you.
The good, the patient, and the tried,
Four hundred thousand men, have died
For me and you,

Good friend, for me and you.

A debt we ne'er can pay

To them is justly due;

And to the nation's latest day
Our children's children still shall say,
"They died for me and you."

Four hundred thousand of the brave

Made this, our ransomed soil, their grave,
For me and you,

Good friend, for me and you.

ANONYMOUS.

SONG OF THE CORNISH MEN.1

A GOOD Sword and a trusty hand!
A merry heart and true!

King James's 2 men shall understand
What Cornish lads can do.

And have they fixed the where and when?
And shall Trelawny die?

Here's twenty thousand Cornish men
Will know the reason why!

Outspake their captain, brave and bold,

A merry wight 3 was he:

"If London Tower were Michael's hold,4
We'll set Trelawny free!

1 In 1688, King James II. of England ordered the clergy throughout the realm to read a royal proclamation which suspended all penal laws against Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics. The Archbishop of Canterbury and six bishops of the English Church, believing that the king's real object was to favor the Catholic party, petitioned His Majesty to be excused from reading the proclamation. He refused to consider their petition; and as the proclamation was read by only a very few of the clergy, he sent the bishops prisoners to the Tower of London.

One of them was Trelawny, a native of Cornwall. The rough Cornish miners demanded his release, and from one end of Cornwall to the other people were heard singing this song.

The pressure brought to bear on the king and his servile bench of judges was so great that on their trial the bishops were all acquitted. Soon after, James fled the country, and William and Mary came to the throne.

2 King James: James II.

3 Wight person.

4 Michael's hold: St. Michael's castle and stronghold on the coast of Cornwall.

1

"We'll cross the Tamar 1 land to land,
The Severn1 is no stay-

With one and all, and hand-in-hand,
And who shall bid us nay?

"And when we come to London wall,—
A pleasant sight to view, -

Come forth! come forth, ye cowards all,
To better men than you!

66

Trelawny he's in keep and hold,2
Trelawny he may die;

But here's twenty thousand Cornish bold

Will know the reason why!"

ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER,

1 Tamar and Severn: rivers of the south of England. The Severn, however, would not be crossed by the Cornish men on their march to London; perhaps the Avon is meant.

2 Keep and hold: dungeon and fortress or stronghold.