358° 
Here first at early morn, with jocund air, 
His smile contagious soften’d every pain: 
His lightsome whistle banish’d peevish care 
And spoke the merry heart, and well-con- 
tented swain 
The iron load of toil on him was light, E 
And laughing stars did at his birth pre- 
side ; ae ; 
He mock’d the terrors of destructive fight, 
And bless’d the glorious day, when first his 
zeal was tried. 
Whether by duty call’d he trod the *waste, 
Where the dread thunder of the mortar 
flies 5 
Or, speeding homewards with paternal haste 
The busy crowded hearth illum’d the 
parent’s eyes, 
Tranquil bis soul.—At night the busy hum 
Of garbling infants stunn’d the cricket’s 
song: ' 
Some of his knee he toss’d; while proudly 
some 
Strutted the house, with sword and 
onet along. 
Again the wonted tale of former days 
_ Fix’d the fond ear of his complacent wife ; 
‘As still she heard, thro” many a wordy maze, 
The thousand hair-breadth hazards of her 
husband’s life. 
She fear’d not yet the luckless cast of fate, 
Nor dream’d of future grief and helpless 
need : Lea 
She heard him many a comrade’s death re- 
late , 
' But little thought she then, his own so 
soon decreed. 
es 
On foreign plains he lies! the wint’ry wind 
Wails thro’ the thorn o’er his sepulchral 
sod ;— 
His bones these arms in their lone cell con- 
fin’d : 
| With patriot’s spirits flown, his soul awaits 
’ her God ! A.B.E. 
EE 
LINES ON EPPING FOREST. 
Man loves the forest.--Gishorne. 
AL awful. thickets, dark umbrageous 
bowers, ; 
Spangled with morning mist, ye tangled woods 
Where Nature ever gay spontaneous reigns, 
In wild luxuriance throwing from her lap ! 
Ambrosial fragrance in the humid air ! 
To you I flee ; yourdeep embowering shades, 
Where thoughtfyl Silence builds her halcyon 
throne 
Invite my wan’dring steps. Each woody 
glade 
Teems with new life, as the light sunbeams 
float 
- Across the shade, rousing the timid deer 
From their green bed, while on the whisper- 
ng breezes = ; 
ee nee ead 
* Woolwich Common, 
Original Poetry. 
The distant sheepbell swells its wavering 
sounds, at See in 
Yon broom-clad vale spreads out the sweetest 
flowers 
That gem the mossy bank, the primrose 
pale ~ 
Expands its modest bud, and vi'let ting’d. 
With deepest purple and concealed beneath 
The briery copse, the lily of the vale 
Its peerless head upraises; cowslips fair 
Sprinkle the upland lawn, and every bush 
Echoes with melody. ‘Thus balmy morn 
Quick passes, and the sun on high serene 
Darts wide his rays, pierces the forest 
gloom, 
And beams a brighter lustre. The gay fly, 
In heauty’s tints arrayed, sips every sweet, 
And in his smile rejoices till the hand 
Of some rude stripling robs it of its charms, 
And then to death consigns it. Now no 
sound : 
Disturbs the peaceful quiet of the grove, 
But the low whisp’rings of the mournful 
trees 
That rustle o’er my head, as *neath ree 
clin’d, ~ 
Iview their shaggy trunks incrusted o’er 
By mouldering Time, where myriad insects lie 
Enwrapt in embryo shade. The parting 
clouds | 
Fly through the air.and shew the arb of day, 
Shrin’d in majestic splendour. How his rays 
Illume yon tower,* dim-twinkling through 
the glade 
(There from its ivied bosom screams the 
stare ; 
The wild bee murmurs and the hooting owl 
Seeks a still deeper shade). What scenes 
appear 
Amid the landscape. Here dark woods 
ascend, F 
Skirting the green hill’s brow and half con- 
ceal’d 
By the grey mists that e’er amusive play 
Around its tufted summit; there o’erhung 
By arching shade rich vales and meads arise, 
Till in the sky the wide-spread prospect 
fades. 
The thesun rages. Still direct he shales 
Still effulgent glory from his burnish’d 
throne. ; 
Now let me leave the forest’s skitts and 
plunge 
Deep in sequester’d gloom, where frowning 
oaks 
Fling their black shade athwart the sylvan 
wild. 
Here let me wander rapt in thought pro- 
found 
*Till sober Eve her dusky pinions spread 
And robe the scene with grey; till the 
young Moon 
Ascend her silver car, and throw o’er all 
A languid gleam. 
J. H. WiFrFen. 
* Epping church. 
' PROCEEDINGS 
[Now dy i ft 
