In livid and obdurate gloom he darkens down at last;

A shapely one he is, and strong, as e'er from cat was cast.

O trusted and trustworthy guard, if thou hadst life like me, What pleasures would thy toils reward beneath the deep green sea!

O deep sea-diver, who might then behold such sights as thou? The hoary monster's palaces! me

thinks what joy 'twere now To go plumb plunging down amid

the assembly of the whales, And feel the churned sea round me boil beneath their scourging

tails!

Then deep in tangle-woods to fight the fierce sea-unicorn,

And send him foiled and bellowing back, for all his ivory horn; To leave the subtile sworder-fish of bony blade forlorn;

And for the ghastly-grinning shark to laugh his jaws to scorn; To leap down on the kraken's back, where 'mid Norwegian isles

He lies, a lubber anchorage for sudden shallowed miles;

Till snorting, like an under-sea volcano, off he rolls;

Meanwhile to swing, a-buffeting the far astonished shoals Of his back-browsing ocean-calves; or, haply in a cove, Shell-strewn, and consecrate of old to some Undiné's love, To find the long-haired maidens; or, hard by icy lands,

To wrestle with the sea-serpent, upon cerulean sands.

O broad-armed fisher of the deep, whose sports can equal

thine?

The Dolphin weighs a thousand tons, that tugs thy cable line;

And night by night, 'tis thy delight, thy glory day by day, Through sable sea and breaker white,

the giant game to play, But shamer of our little sports! forgive the name I gave,

A fisher's joy is to destroy, - thine office is to save.

Illumined every side: a watery light Gleamed through the clear transparency, that seemed

Another moon new risen, or meteor fallen

From Heaven to Earth, of lambent flame serene.

So stood the brittle prodigy: though

smooth

And slippery the materials, yet frost

bound

Firm as a rock. Nor wanted aught within,

That royal residence might well befit, For grandeur or for use. Long wavy

wreaths

Of flowers, that feared no enemy but warmth,

Blushed on the panels. Mirror needed none

Where all was vitreous; but in order

due

Convivial table and commodious seat, (What seemed at least commodious seat,) were there; Sofa and couch and high-built throne august.

The same lubricity was found in all, And all was moist to the warm touch; a scene

Of evanescent glory, once a stream, And soon to slide into a stream again. COWPER.

THE SOLDIER'S DREAM.

OUR bugles sang truce; for the night-cloud had lowered,

And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;

And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered,

The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,

By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain,

At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,

And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.

Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array

Far, far I had roamed on a desolate track:

THE PALM AND THE PINE.
BENEATH an Indian palm a girl
Of other blood reposes;
Her cheek is clear and pale as pearl,
Amid that wild of roses.

Beside a northern pine a boy
Is leaning fancy-bound,
Nor listens where with noisy joy
Awaits the impatient hound.

Cool grows the sick and feverish calm,

Relaxed the frosty twine,

The pine-tree dreameth of the palm,
The palm-tree of the pine.

As soon shall nature interlace
Those dimly visioned boughs,
As these young lovers face to face
Renew their early vows!

MILNES.