Let kindlier visitants attend my way, Beneath the approaching Summer's fervid ray; [THE "Remains" of Henry Kirke White, edited by Southey, has, from its first publication, been recognised as almost an English classic. The poet was born at Nottingham, and as a lad was placed with a stockingweaver, but showing an intense love for Latin and Greek, he was, chiefly through the generosity of Mr. Wilberforce, sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, where, however, his intense study proved too much for a naturally delicate constitution, and he died of decline at the early age of 21. ] IT is not that my lot is low That makes this silent tear to flow; It is not grief that bids me moan; It is that I am all alone. In woods and glens I love to roam, Yet when the silent evening sighs And sighs that it is all alone. The Autumn leaf is sere and dead It floats upon the water's bed; I would not be a leaf, to die The woods and winds with sullen wail, I've none to smile when I am free, And when I sigh to sigh with me. Yet in my dreams a form I view, I weep that I am all alone. THE EARLY PRIMROSE. MILD offspring of a dark and sullen sire! Whose modest form, so delicately fine, Was nursed in whirling storms And cradled in the winds. Thee, when young Spring first question'd Winter's sway And dared the sturdy blusterer to the fight, Thee on this bank he threw To mark his victory. In this low vale, the promise of the year, Unnoticed and alone, Thy tender elegance. So virtue blooms, brought forth amid the storms Of life she rears her head, Obscure and unobserved; While every bleaching breeze that on her blows Chastens her spotless purity of breast, And hardens her to bear Serene the ills of life. [BISHOP Heber's reputation as poet rests mainly on the authorship of some of our brightest and most spirit-stirring hymns; combining, as they do, both poetry and devotional expression, they will long retain their place in all English hymnals. For this reason, his best known and most universally adopted stanzas are selected for the present volume. They were written by him specially for and within a few hours previous to a collection for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. His other chief poems consist of his University Prize Poem, "Palestine;" a "Translation of Pindar;" "Morte d'Arthur," a fragment; and several minor pieces. The arrangement of the subjects of his sacred verse would lead to the belief that he had projected a complete series for the Christian year, as later carried out by the Rev. John Keble. The career of the poet, however, terminated with the office and labours of missionary bishop, and his appointment to the see of Calcutta may be said to have precluded all further literary work. His useful and promising career was prematurely closed by death from apoplexy whilst bathing at Trichinopoly, in the forty-fourth year of his age.] What though the spicy breezes Bows down to wood and stone. Can we whose souls are lighted The lamp of life deny? Has learn'd Messiah's name. Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, It spreads from pole to pole! |