And by the breath of mercy made to roll WILSON. CORONACH. 1. HE is gone on the mountain, Like a summer-dried fountain, From the rain-drops shall borrow, To Duncan no morrow! 2. The hand of the reaper Takes the ears that are hoary, Waft the leaves that are searest, When blighting was nearest. 3. Fleet foot on the correi, Sage counsel in cumber, Red hand in the foray, How sound is thy slumber! Like the foam on the river, Thou art gone, and for ever! difficulty SCOTT. Coronach. The coronach of the Highlanders was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend; when the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his decease. THE CATARACT OF VELINO. [GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, born 22nd January, 1788, early became famous as a poet. He died at the early age of 36, in 1824. His poems are too numerous to be mentioned here. Our extract is taken from "Childe Harold," perhaps the most enduring of all his works.] 1. THE roar of waters !—from the headlong height The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss ; 2. And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again Returns in an unceasing shower, which round, With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain, Is an eternal April to the ground, The gulf! and how the giant element From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent 3. To the broad column which rolls on, and shows Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes With many windings, through the vale:-Look back! As if to sweep down all things in its track, Charming the eye with dread, a matchless cataract, 4. Horribly beautiful! but on the verge, From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge, Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn : Velino. A river of Italy, which rises in the west slope of the Apennines, flows S.S.W. until it enters Rieti, where it turns N.N.W., and, dashing over a precipice of about 900 feet in height, forms the celebrated falls of Terni— one of the grandest falls in Europe. Phlegethon.-Literally means flaming, and was the name given to a river in the lower world, in whose channel flowed flames instead of water. Iris.-The personification of the rainbow, which was regarded as the swift messenger of the gods. THE ISLES OF GREECE. 1. THE isles of Greece! the isles of Greece ! The hero's harp, the lover's lute, And musing there an hour, alone, I dreamed that Greece might still be free! For, standing on the Persian's grave, 4. A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; And men, in nations—all were his ! 5. And where are they? and where art thou, The heroic bosom beats no more! And must thy lyre, so long divine, Degenerate into hands like mine? 6. 'Tis something, in the dearth of fame, For Greeks, a blush!—for Greece, a tear! 7. Must we but weep o'er days more bless'd? 8. What, silent still? and silent all? Ah! no;-the voices of the dead BYRON. Sappho.-A famous Greek poetess, a native of Mitylene in the island of Lesbos. Delos.-An island in the Archipelago. According to a legend, it was called out of the deep by the trident of Neptune, but was a floating island until Jupiter fastened it to the bottom of the sea. Phœbus.-Apollo, who was born in Delos. Scian muse.-Homer, who was said to be a native of Scio or Chios. Teian muse.-Anacreon, a native of Teos, a city in Asia Minor. Islands of the bless'd.-The "Insulæ Fortunate" of the ancients, the abode of the happy dead, placed at the western extremity of the earth, near the River Oceanus. Marathon.-A village of Attica in Greece, where the Persians, in the reign of Darius, were signally defeated by the Greeks, B.C. 490. Salamis.--An island in the Ægean Sea, off the west coast of Attica, in the neighbourhood of which the Persian fleet was completely destroyed by the Greeks, B.C. 480. Thermopyla.-A famous pass lying between Mount Eta and the Egean Sea, where 300 Spartans kept at bay the whole Persian army, until they were surrounded by treachery. THE LAMENT OF OUTALISSI. "AND I could weep ;" th' Oneyda chief For by my wrongs, and by my wrath! To-morrow Areouski's breath (That fires yon heav'n with storms of death) Shall light us to the foe: And we shall share, my Christian boy! The foeman's blood, the avenger's joy! |