48 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
instructive as showing Heavysege’s constant effort to bring his verses 
nearer that artistic perfection which he had ever in view. 
The stars are glittering in the frosty sky, 
Frequent as pebbles on a broad sea-coast ; 
And o’er the vault the cloud-like galaxy 
Has marshalled its innumerable host. 
Alive all heaven seems! with wondrous glow 
Tenfold refulgent every star appears, 
As if some wide, celestial gale did blow, 
And thrice illume the ever-kindled spheres. 
Orbs, with glad orbs rejoicing, burning, beam, 
Ray-crowned, with lambent lustre in their zones, 
Till o’er the blue, bespangled spaces seem 
Angels and great archangels on their thrones ; 
A host divine, whose eyes are sparkling gems, 
And forms more bright than diamond diadems. 
The XIX sonnet is interesting as containing the only local refer- 
ence to be found in Heavysege’s poems. It has regard to Christ Church 
Cathedral, Montreal,—the old church, not the present building. 
How often do I hear thee, Christ Church Bell, 
Tolling the quarters through the busy day, 
And, with repeated, monitary .Knell, 
Announce the moments still refuse to stay. 
Heavysege published four separate poems, in addition to those 
already mentioned. None of them, however, appeared in book-form. 
One was an Ode read at the Shakespeare Ter-centenary celebration in 
Montreal, on the 23rd April, 1864. It contains about eight hundred 
lines, and is very uneven and faulty in execution. The opening sentence 
furnishes an excellent example of Heavysege’s incorrigible longwinded- 
ness. It covers eighty lines,—even Ruskin could hardly have beaten 
that! The poem is particularly disappointing inasmuch as one natur- 
ally looked for Heavysege’s very best work, when dealing with his 
favourite poet. In spite of occasional passages of some merit, the Ode 
is on the whole creditable neither to author nor subject. 
Jezebel, a poem in three cantos, published in the New Dominion 
Monthly, Montreal, in 1867, is a much finer production in every way. 
Heavysege was in his element when dealing with Biblical themes. 
He caught the very spirit and atmosphere of the strenuous Hebrew life. 
In this poem a masterful picture is drawn of the passionate and unscru- 

! “ Hardly worthy of the author of Saul.’—(Charles Lanman, Haphazard 
Personalities, p. 271.) 
