ARNOLD WINKELRIED. ARNOLD WINKELRIED. — Montgomery. "MAKE way for liberty!" he cried; Made way for liberty, and died! It must not be; this day, this hour, Unmarked he stood amid the throng, Till you might see, with sudden grace, And, by the uplifting of his brow, Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. But 't was no sooner thought than done! The field was in a moment won: 199 He bowed amongst them like a tree, Swift to the breach his comrades fly ; An earthquake could not overthrow Thus Switzerland again was free; ON MYSELF. - Cowley. THIS only grant me, that my means may lie Not from great deeds, but good alone; Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends Books should, not business, entertain the light, Than palace; and should fitting be My garden painted o'er With Nature's hand, not Art's; and pleasures yiel Horace might envy in his Sabine field. THE GRASSHOPPER, Thus would I double my life's fading space; These unbought sports, this happy state, To-morrow let my sun his beams display, 201 THE GRASSHOPPER. -Tennyson. VOICE of the summer wind, No Tithon* thou, as poets feign, (Shame fall 'em, they are deaf and blind,) But an insect lithe and strong, Bowing the seeded summer flowers. Prove their falsehood and their quarrel, Vaulting on thy airy feet, Clap thy shielded sides and carol, Carol clearly, chirrup sweet. Thou art a mailed warrior, in youth and strength complete. * Among the many beautiful fables of the ancient Greeks was this one. The beauty of Tithonus, son of a king of Troy, gained for him the affection of one of the goddesses. He begged her, as a favor, to make him immortal, and his request was granted. But, as he had forgotten to ask to retain the vigor and beauty of youth, he soon became infirm and decrepid; and, as life became insupportable to him, he begged the goddess to remove him from the world. As he could not die, she changed him into a grasshopper. 202 THE GRASSHOPPER. Armed cap-a-pie, "Sans peur et sans reproche," * Thou hast no sorrow or tears, But a short youth, sunny and free. Soon thy joy is over. A summer of loud song, And slumbers in the clover, That brush thee with their silken tresses? What hast thou to do with evil, In and out the emerald glooms; Lighting on the golden blooms? * Without fear and without reproach; an epithet applied to Bay ard, a French knight distinguished for his courage and his integrity He died in 1524. A GRECIAN ANECDOTE. 203 A GRECIAN ANECDOTE. — Milnes. How Sparta thirsted after orient gold, And bartered faith for wealth she dared not use, Is as severe a tale as e'er was told The pride of man to conquer and confuse. Therefore forget not what that nature was, To mingle Sparta in his distant broil. How thick the perils of that far emprise, To people as to prince, appeal was vain, Vain the dark menace, vain the shadowy gibe,- A suppliant at the regal hearth he stood, Played the king's child,-a girl some nine years old. Ten-twenty-forty talents rose the bait; Yet fifty now had well secured the prey, Father, that man is there to do you harm." |