Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 095.djvu/151

144 The spectres advancing danced around

His startled steed;

Which, snorting, stood as if nailed to the ground,

A trembling reed.

From his horse, Sir Oller in haste sprang down.

His foot it slipped;

In a pool of blood, he marked with a frown,

His foot had dipped.

Round Urian thunder rolls again.

Red lightnings glare,

And all o’er which Oller's eyeballs strain

Is blazing there.

Amidst the flames, a bloody band

Sir Oller sees;

Madly he rushes on, sword in hand.

To combat these.

Rut Urian cries in a scornful tone.

"Ha! wouldst thou dare?"

And the knight and his steed are turned to stone.

Ever to stand there!

The other lines are part of a poem addressed to his fatherland

Thou spot! where, called by the Almighty’s will.

From nothingness I rose, to meet the strife

Of this dark world, its lengthened hours of ill,—

And still, oh God! to everlasting life!

Beloved spot! where, with enchanted ear,

I listened to the birds the woods among;

Where heaven's own harmonies I seemed to hear

In their blythe carol, and my mother’s song.

Where, from my trembling lips first softly flowed

The name or her who shone in every grace;

When first, spell-bound, my kindling bosom glowed

In love's and friendship’s cordial, warm embrace.

O, native land! have I not sought to gain

O'er our wide globe—where earth’s descendants dwell—

An Eden, calm and fair as thou? In vain;

For thou art linked by memory’s hidden chain

To the blest joys that childhood loved so well!

Ah! nowhere do the roses seem so red—

Ah! nowhere else the thorn so small appears—

And nowhere makes the down so soft a bed

As that where innocence reposed in bygone years!

What though in brighter and less broken rays

O'er the clear fountains and the limpid streams

Of many distant lands, the mild sun plays.

Than o'er the Belt and our cold zone it beams.

Range round the world, and melt in tropic grove.

Or shiver 'midst the mountain-fields of snow;

Hear from a thousand lips where'er ye rove,

Nature's and its Creator's praises now;

Remark where her bright blessings Freedom sheds.

And the rich grain for all its treasures spreads;