382 A MELOLOGUE UPON NATIONAL MUSIC. See! from his native hills afar, As if 'twere like his mountain rill, O Music! here, even here, Amid this thoughtless wild career, Thy soul-felt charm asserts its wondrous power. Of his own lovèd land, at evening hour, Is heard when shepherds homeward pipe their flocks: With tenderest thoughts-would bring around his knees With speaking tears that ask him why And the stern eyes, that looked for blood before, SWISS AIR. BUT wake the trumpet's blast again, O War! when Truth thy arm employs, Than the blest sound of fetters breaking, From Slavery's slumber, breathes to Liberty! SPANISH AIR. HARK! from Spain, indignant Spain, Like morning's music on the air, And seems in every note to swear, By Saragossa's ruined streets, By brave Gerona's deathful story, That while one Spaniard's life-blood beats, That blood shall stain the Conqueror's glory! But ah! if vain the patriot's zeal, If neither valour's force nor wisdom's light Can break or melt that blood-cemented seal Which shuts so close the book of Europe's right--What song shall then in sadness tell Of broken pride, of prospects shaded; Of buried hopes, remembered well, Of ardour quenched and honour faded? What muse shall mourn the breathless brave, In sweetest dirge at memory's shrine? What harp shall sigh o'er Freedom's grave? O Erin! thine! "The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and he sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summ and winter."-Psalm lxxiv. 16, 17. I. THOU art, O God! the life and light Are but reflections caught from Thee. II. When day, with farewell beam, delays Through golden vistas into heaven; III. When night, with wings of starry gloom, I have heard that this air is by the late Mrs. Sheridan. ! cautiful old words, "I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair. It is sung to the IV. When youthful spring around us breathes, THIS WORLD IS ALL A FLEETING SHOW. AIR-Stevenson. I. THIS world is all a fleeting show There's nothing true but Heaven! II. And false the light on glory's plume, And Love, and Hope, and Beauty's bloom, Her love thy fairest heritage,* Thy long-loved olive-tree ;+-- III. Then sunk the star of Solyma ;— IV. "Go," said the Lord-"ye conquerors! WHO IS THE MAID?** I. WHO is the maid my spirit seeks, Through cold reproof and slander's blight. Is hers an eye of this world's light? No, wan and sunk with midnight prayer Are the pale looks of her I love; * "I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies."-Jer. xii. 7. "Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory."-Jer. xiv. 21. "The Lord called thy name, A green olive-tree, fair, and of goodly fruit,” &c.-Jer. xi. 16. For he shall be like the heath in the desert."-Jer. xvii. 6. "Take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord's."-Jer. v. 10. "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place."-Jer. vii. 32. ** These lines were suggested by a passage in St. Jerome's reply to some calumnious remarks that had been circulated upon his intimacy with the Matron Paula :-"Numquid me vestes_sericæ, nitentes gemmæ, picta facies, aut auri rapuit ambitio? Nulla fuit alia Romæ matronarum, quæ meam possit edomare mentem, nisi lugens atque jejunans, fletu pene cæcata."-Epist. "Si tibi putem. |