For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths-for you the shores a

crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning:

Here, Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck

You've fallen cold and dead.

3. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won:
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies
Fallen cold and dead.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
Born 1809.

OLD IRONSIDES.

1. Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;

Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar ;-

The meteor of the ocean air

Shall sweep the clouds no more!

2. Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,

No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;—

The harpies of the shore shall pluck

The eagle of the sea!

3. Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave.
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

Born 1819-Died 1891.

THE FOUNTAIN.

1. Into the sunshine,
Full of the light,
Leaping and flashing
From morn till night!

2. Into the moonlight,
Whiter than snow,
Waving, so flower-like,
When the winds blow!

3. Into the starlight,

Rushing in spray,
Happy at midnight,
Happy by day!

4. Ever in motion,

Blithesome and cheery,
Still climbing heavenward,
Never aweary;

5. Glad of all weathers,

Still seeming best,
Upward or downward
Motion thy rest;

6. Full of a nature

Nothing can tame,

Changed every moment,
Ever the same;

7. Ceaseless aspiring,

Ceaseless content,

Darkness or sunshine

Thy element;

8. Glorious fountain!
Let my heart be

Fresh, changeful, constant,
Upward like thee!

THE SINGING LEAVES.

I.

1." What fairings will ye that I bring?" Said the King to his daughters three; "For I to Vanity Fair am boune:

Now say, what shall they be?"

2. Then up and spake the eldest daughter, That lady tall and grand:

"O, bring me pearls and diamonds great, And gold rings for my hand."

3. Thereafter spake the second daughter,
That was both white and red:
For me bring silks that will stand alone,
And a gold comb for my head."

4. Then came the turn of the least daughter,
That was whiter than thistle-down,
And among the gold of her blithesome hair
Dim shone the golden crown:

6. Then the brow of the King swelled crimson
With a flush of angry scorn :
"Well have ye spoken, my two eldest,
And chosen as ye were born;

7." But she like a thing of peasant race,
That is happy binding the sheaves!"
Then he saw her dead mother in her face,
And said, "Thou shalt have thy Leaves."

II.

8. He mounted and rode three days and nights Till he came to Vanity Fair,

And 'twas easy to buy the gems and the silk,
But no Singing Leaves were there.

9. Then deep in the greenwood rode he, And asked of every tree,

"O, if you have ever a Singing Leaf, I pray you give it me!"

10. But the trees all kept their counsel,
And never a word said they,
Only there sighed from the pine-tops
A music of seas far away;

11. Only the pattering aspen

Made a sound of growing rain,
That fell ever faster and faster,

Then faltered to silence again.

12." O where shall I find a little foot-page,
That would win both hose and shoon,
And will bring to me the Singing Leaves
If they grow under the moon?"

13. Then lightly turned him Walter the page,
By the stirrup as he ran :
"Now pledge ye me the truesome word
Of a king and gentleman,

14." That you will give me the first, first thing You meet at your castle-gate,

And the Princess shall get the Singing Leaves,
Or mine be a traitor's fate."

15. The King's head dropt upon his breast A moment, as it might be:

""Twill be my dog," he thought, and said, "My faith I plight to thee."

16. Then Walter took from next his heart A packet small and thin,

"Now give you this to the Princess Anne,--The Singing Leaves are therein."

III.

17. As the King rode in at his castle-gate,
A maiden to meet him ran,

And "Welcome, father!" she laughed and cried
Together, the Princess Anne.

18." Lo, here the Singing Leaves," quoth he, "And woe! but they cost me dear." She took the packet, and the smile Deepened down beneath the tear.

19. It deepened down till it reached her heart,
And then gushed up again,

And lighted her tears as the sudden sun
Transfigures the summer rain.

20. And the first leaf when it was opened
Sang, "I am Walter the page,

And the songs I sing 'neath thy window
Are my only heritage."

21. And the second leaf sang, “But in the land
That is neither on earth nor sea,

My lute and I are lords of more
Than thrice this kingdom's fee.”

22. And the third leaf sang, "Be mine! be mine!" And ever it sang, "Be mine!"

Then sweeter it sang and ever sweeter,
And said, "I am thine! thine! thine!"