SONGS IN MANY KEYS.

THE piping of our slender, peaceful reeds
Whispers uncared for while the trumpets bray;
Song is thin air; our hearts' exulting play
Beats time but to the tread of marching deeds,
Following the mighty van that Freedom leads,
Her glorious standard flaming to the day!
The crimsoned pavement where a hero bleeds
Breathes nobler lessons than the poet's lay.

Strong arms, broad breasts, brave hearts, are better worth
Than strains that sing the ravished echoes dumb.
Hark! 't is the loud reverberating drum

Rolls o'er the prairied West, the rock-bound North:

The myriad-handed Future stretches forth

Its shadowy palms. Behold, we come,

we come!

Turn o'er these idle leaves. Such toys as these
Were not unsought for, as, in languid dreams,

We lay beside our lotus-feeding streams,

And nursed our fancies in forgetful ease.

It matters little if they pall or please;

Dropping untimely, while the sudden gleams

Glare from the mustering clouds whose blackness seems
Too swollen to hold its lightning from the trees.
Yet, in some lull of passion, when at last
These calm revolving moons that come and go —
Turning our months to years, they creep so slow-
Have brought us rest, the not unwelcome past
May flutter to thee through these leaflets, cast
On the wild winds that all around us blow.

MAY 1, 1861.

'T was strange no Chloe's "beauteous Next, on their left, the slender spires,