1.
Dares the lama, most fleet of the sons of the wind,
The lion to rouse from his skull-covered lair?
When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind
Repose trust in his footsteps of air?
No! Abandoned he sinks in a trance of despair,
The monster transfixes his prey,
On the sand flows his life-blood away;
Whilst India's rocks to his death-yells reply,
Protracting the horrible harmony.

2.
Yet the fowl of the desert, when danger encroaches,
Dares fearless to perish defending her brood,
Though the fiercest of cloud-piercing tyrants approaches
Thirsting - ay, thirsting for blood;
And demands, like mankind, his brother for food;
Yet more lenient, more gentle than they;
For hunger, not glory, the prey
Must perish. Revenge does not howl in the de...

The first time the Fox had a sight
Of the Lion, he 'most died of fright;
When he next met his eye,
Fox felt just a bit shy;
But the next--quite at ease, & polite.

Familiarity Destroys Fear

The autumn-time has come;
On woods that dream of bloom,
And over purpling vines,
The low sun fainter shines.

The aster-flower is failing,
The hazel’s gold is paling;
Yet overhead more near
The eternal stars appear!

And present gratitude
Insures the future’s good,
And for the things I see
I trust the things to be;

That in the paths untrod,
And the long days of God,
My feet shall still be led,
My heart be comforted.

O living friends who love me!
O dear ones gone above me!
Careless of other fame,
I leave to you my name.

Hide it from idle praises,
Save it from evil phrases
Why, when dear lips that spake it
Are dumb, should strangers wake it?

Let the thick curtain fall;
I better know t...

Shines the last age, the next with hope is seen,
To-day slinks poorly off unmarked between:
Future or Past no richer secret folds,
O friendless Present! than thy bosom holds.

Through what long heaviness, assayed in what strange fire,
Have these white monks been brought into the way of peace,
Despising the world's wisdom and the world's desire,
Which from the body of this death bring no release?

Within their austere walls no voices penetrate;
A sacred silence only, as of death, obtains;
Nothing finds entry here of loud or passionate;
This quiet is the exceeding profit of their pains.

From many lands they came, in divers fiery ways;
Each knew at last the vanity of earthly joys;
And one was crowned with thorns, and one was crowned with bays,
And each was tired at last of the world's foolish noise.

It was not theirs with Dominic to preach God's holy wrath,
They were too stern to bear sweet Francis' gentle sway;
Theirs was a hig...

I looked into the night and saw
GOD writing with tumultuous flame
Upon the thunder's front of awe, -
As on sonorous brass, - the Law,
Terrific, of HIS judgement name.

Weary of all life's best and worst,
With hands of hate, I - who had pled,
I, who had prayed for death at first
And had not died - now stood and cursed
GOD, yet he would not strike me dead.

Brothers, look there!

What! see ye nothing yet?
Knit your eyebrows close, and stare;
Send your souls forth in the gaze,
As my finger-point is set,
Through the thick of the foggy air.
Beyond the air, you see the dark;
(For the darkness hedges still our ways;)
And beyond the dark, oh, lives away!
Dim and far down, surely you mark
A huge world-heap of withered years
Dropt from the boughs of eternity?
See ye not something lying there,
Shapeless as a dumb despair,
Yet a something that spirits can recognise
With the vision dwelling in their eyes?
It hath the form of a man!
As a huge moss-rock in a valley green,
When the light to freeze began,
Thickening with crystals of dark between,
Might look like a sleeping man.
What think ye it, br...

Maternal love! thou wond'rous power,
    By no base fears controul'd,
Tis truly thine, in danger's hour,
    To make the tender bold!

And yet, more marvellous! thy sway,
    Amid the pathless wild,
Can humanize the beast of prey!
    And make the savage mild!

A traveller, on Afric's shore.
    Near to a forest's side,
That shook with many a monster's roar,
    With hasty caution hied.

But suddenly, full in his way,
    A Panther he descries;
Athwart his very road she lay,
    And fixt his fearful eyes.

With backward step, and watchful stare
    If refuge there may be;
He hopes to gain, with trembling care,
    The refuge of a tree.

A fruitless hope--the Panther moves,
    Perceiving his intent,
And va...

Brave Schill! by death delivered, take thy flight
From Prussia's timid region. Go, and rest
With heroes, 'mid the islands of the Blest,
Or in the fields of empyrean light.
A meteor wert thou crossing a dark night:
Yet shall thy name, conspicuous and sublime,
Stand in the spacious firmament of time,
Fixed as a star: such glory is thy right.
Alas! it may not be: for earthly fame
Is Fortune's frail dependant; yet there lives
A Judge, who, as man claims by merit, gives;
To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim,
Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed;
In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.

Of our own will we are not free,
    When freedom lies within our power.
    We wait for some decisive hour,
To rise and take our liberty.

Still we delay, content to be
    Imprisoned in our own high tower.
    What is it but a strong-built bower?
Ours are the warders, ours the key.

But we through indolence grow weak.
    Our warders, fed with power so long,
            Become at last our lords indeed.
We vainly threaten, vainly seek
    To move their ruth.    The bars are strong.
            We dash against them till we bleed.

There was a young lady named Ruth,
Who had a great passion for truth.
    She said she would die
    Before she would lie,
And she died in the prime of her youth.

    Oh! had each Scot of ancient times,
        Been Jeany Scott, as thou art,
    The bravest heart on English ground
        Had yielded like a coward!

        The hurry of the times affects us so
    In this swift rushing hour, we crowd and press
        And thrust each other backward as we go,
    And do not pause to lay sufficient stress
    Upon that good, strong, true word, Earnestness.
        In our impetuous haste, could we but know
        Its full, deep meaning, its vast import, oh,
    Then might we grasp the secret of success!
        In that receding age when men were great,
    The bone and sinew of their purpose lay
    In this one word. God likes an earnest soul -
        Too earnest to be eager. Soon or late
    It leaves the spent horde breathless by the way,
    And stands serene, triumphant at the goal.

'Tis not the walls or purple that defends
A prince from foes, but 'tis his fort of friends.

    Northland of our birth and rearing,
    Bound to us by ties endearing, -
    Forward ever, nothing fearing!
            Forward, Canada!

    Hear thy children's acclamations!
    Vanquish trials and vexations!
    Higher rise among the nations!
            Forward, Canada!

    Not by battles fierce and gory,
    Not by conquest's hollow glory,
    Need'st thou live in deathless story:
            Forward, Canada!

    Not by might and not by power, - -
    Truth shall be thy fortress tower;
    Arts of peace shall be thy flower:
            Forward, Canada!

    Yet if tyrant foe should ever
    'Gainst thee come with base endeavor,
    Strike, and yield thy freedom never:
            Forward, Canada!

Day of Satan's painful duty!
Earth shall vanish, hot and sooty;
So says Virtue, so says Beauty.

Ah! what terror shall be shaping
When the Judge the truth's undraping,
Cats from every bag escaping!

Now the trumpet's invocation
Calls the dead to condemnation;
All receive an invitation.

Death and Nature now are quaking,
And the late lamented, waking,
In their breezy shrouds are shaking.

Lo! the Ledger's leaves are stirring,
And the Clerk, to them referring,
Makes it awkward for the erring.

When the Judge appears in session,
We shall all attend confession,
Loudly preaching non-suppression.

How shall I then make romances
Mitigating circumstances?
Even the just must take their chances.

King whose maj...

There's no use in weeping,
Though we are condemned to part:
There's such a thing as keeping
A remembrance in one's heart:

There's such a thing as dwelling
On the thought ourselves have nursed,
And with scorn and courage telling
The world to do its worst.

We'll not let its follies grieve us,
We'll just take them as they come;
And then every day will leave us
A merry laugh for home.

When we've left each friend and brother,
When we're parted wide and far,
We will think of one another,
As even better than we are.

Every glorious sight above us,
Every pleasant sight beneath,
We'll connect with those that love us,
Whom we truly love till death!

In the evening, when we're sitting
By the fire, perchance alone,

Silent yet fiercely the battle is raging;
    Blood is not flowing, but poison is spread;
Freedom and slavery madly are waging
    A war that will last till its cause shall be dead.

Canada, thine is the field of the battle,
    Nor would the conflict be long or severe,
Were not thy statesmen, "like dumb, driven cattle,"
    Led by emolument, daunted by fear.

Slowly advances the Jesuit faction,
    Crafty and subtle the means they employ.
Protestants fight, but uncertain their action--
    Party dissensions their power destroy.

Love of their country still loudly professing,
    On to the conflict divided they go.
Firmest allegiance to Britain confessing,
    Still disunited they fight with her foe.

Canada, these are the men...