The Hon. WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER (1770-1834). His poems, though written in a simple and unaffected style, are marked by deep and genuine pathos.

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That day Llewellyn little loved

The chase of hart* or hare :

And scant and small the booty * proved;
For Gelert was not there.

Unpleased Llewellyn homeward hied;
When near the portal-seat

*

His truant Gelert he espied,*
Bounding his lord to greet.*

*

25 But when he gained the castle-door, Aghast the chieftain stood;

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The hound was smeared with gouts of gore;
His lips and fangs * ran blood.

Llewellyn gazed with wild surprise,
Unused such looks to meet;

His favourite checked his joyful guise,
And crouched * and licked his feet.

Onward in haste Llewellyn passed,
And on went Gelert too;
And still, where'er his eyes were cast,
Fresh blood-gouts shocked his view.
O'erturned his infant's bed he found,
The blood-stained covert * rent;
And all around the walls and ground
With recent blood besprent.*

He called his child-no voice replied;
He searched with terror wild;
Blood, blood, he found on every side,
But nowhere found his child.

*

Devoured, eaten as by a beast of prey.

Frantic, mad, furi

ous.

Hilt, the handle of a sword.

Suppliant, one who prays humbly.

Yell, a dreadful loud cry.

Nigh, close by, near.

B

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882) is a distinguished essayist and journalist, and was born at Boston, U.S. In style and manner he greatly resembles Carlyle. This poem is taken from his essays on Society and Solitude.

Bard, a poet and

singer of the ancient Celts.

MEN have done brave deeds,

And bards have sung them well:

I of good George Nidiver

Now the tale will tell.

JEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER.*—Byron.

LORD BYRON (1788-1824) was born in London, and died at Missolonghi in Greece, whither he had gone to aid in the struggle for Grecian independence. He was one of the greatest English poets, but it is much to be regretted that he degraded his genius in his last poem. Chief poems: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers; Childe Harold, one of the greatest poems of the century; The Prisoner of Chillon; Manfred; and Don Juan.

Sire, father.

Vow, a solemn promise.

Mourning, sorrowing for the dead.

Ere, before.

Soothes, comforts.

SINCE Our country, our God—0 my sire ! *
Demand that thy daughter expire;
Since thy triumph was bought by thy vow,*
Strike the bosom that's bared for thee now!

And the voice of my mourning * is o'er,
And the mountains behold me no more:
If the hand that I love lay me low,
There cannot be pain in the blow:

And of this, O my father! be sure-
That the blood of thy child is as pare
As the blessing I beg ere* it flow,

And the last thought that soothes * me below.

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ΙΟ

* Jephtha, one of the judges of Israel. Before going to battle with the Ammonites he swore that on his return, if he gained the victory, he would offer in sacrifice the first thing he met coming out of his house-it happened to be his own daughter.