Thy task is taught, thy shroud is wrought So, forward! and farewell! Toll ye my Second, toll; Fling high the flambeau's light; And sing the hymn for a parted soul Beneath the silent night; The helm upon his head, The cross upon his breast, Let the prayer be said, and the tear be shed: Now take him to his rest! Call ye my Whole, go, call The Lord of lute and lay, And let him greet the sable pall No fitter hand may crave To light the flame of a soldier's fame, On the turf of a soldier's grave. I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER. I remember, I remember How my childhood fleeted by,The mirth of its December, And the warmth of its July; On my brow, love, on my brow, love, There are no signs of care; But my pleasures are not now, love, What childhood's pleasures were. Then the bowers, then the bowers, Were coronals for me: Gems to-night, love-gems to-night, love, But they are not half so bright, love, I was singing-I was singing, But it's not so glad a thing, love, I was merry-I was merry, When my little lovers came, With a lily, or a cherry, Or a new invented game; Now I've you, love-now I've you, love, To kneel before me there; But you know you're not so true, love, As childhood's lovers were! Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Miss Landon, the daughter of an army agent, was born in Chelsea, England, in 1802, and died in 1838. She began to write verses at an early age, and, under the signature of L. E. L., contributed largely to the London Literary Gazette. Her father died, and she supported herself and some of her relatives by her pen. In 1838 she was married to George Maclean, Governor of Cape Coast Castle, and sailed for her new home. There, in October of the same year, she died from an over-dose of prussic acid, which she was in the habit of taking for an hysterical affection. Her poems, popular in their day, show, with some flashes of genius, the "fatal facility" which rests in mediocrity. Perhaps she could not afford to blot, so long as her most trifling productions brought the muchneeded money. Her "Poetical Sketches" appeared in 1821; "The Improvisatrice, and other Poems," in 1824. Her "Life and Literary Remains" were published by Laman Blanchard in 1841. Her collected poems, edited by W. B. Scott, appeared in 1873. She wrote several novels, the reputation of which was ephemeral. SUCCESS ALONE SEEN. Few know of life's beginnings-men behold When hope deferred was sickness to the heart. Hard are life's early steps; and, but that youth And oh my wingéd spirit loves to fly, Ran reddened toward the deep. But thou, O bleak And rocky mountain, wast the theatre And though the clouds closed round them with the gloom Of double night, they paused not in their march Of flame and lead and iron downward burst But soon the trumpet-voice The silent Power that brings thee back, with lead ing-strings of love, To haunts where first the summer sun fell on thee from above, Shall bind thee more to come aye to the music of our leaves; For here thy young, where thou hast sprung, shall glad thee in our eaves. Richard Hengist Horne. Horne, born in London in 1803, was educated at Sandhurst College. He entered the Mexican navy as a midshipman in the war against Spain, and when peace came returned to England, and devoted himself to literature. He is the author of three tragedies, of which he regarded "Gregory the Seventh" as his best; has written stories for children, disquisitions, ballads and romances, biographies and essays. His most successful work, "Orion, an Epic Poem" (1843), had reached a ninth edition in 1874. The price of the first edition was placed at a farthing, as a sarcasm upon the low estimation into which epic poetry has fallen." Three large editions were sold at a farthing a copy; the fourth was raised to a shilling, and the fifth to half a crown. In his "Literati" Poe gives an elaborate and eulogistic review of "Orion." The poem contains some beautiful passages, but lacks the human, normal interest which a successful epic must have. MORNING. FROM ORION." O'er meadows green or solitary lawn, In quiet freshness, 'mid the pause that holds In saffron, thence pure golden shines the morn; Samuel Laman Blanchard (1803–1845) was a native of Great Yarmouth, England. His father, a painter and glazier, gave him a good classical education, but could not afford to send him to college. Laman had a week's experience on the stage, and was disenchanted of his theatrical aspirations. He then thought of joining Lord Byron in Greece, in company with Jerrold. This plan was abandoned, and at the age of twenty he married. He engaged editorially in literature and politics; was connected successively with the Monthly Magazine, La Belle Assemblée, the True Sun, the Court Journal, Ainsworth's Magazine, and the Examiner. In 1828 he published “Lyric Offerings," a volume cordially praised by Lord Lytton, then Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, and editing the New Monthly Magazine; who called attention to "the following exquisite lines" in a sonnet on Noon: "This is sweet, To see the heavens all open, and the hood Of crystal Noon flung back! the earth meanwhile Of light, where every mote is some small minstrel's isle," Laman Blanchard died by his own hand, while he was in a state of great nervous excitement, bordering on insanity. Six months before, he had expressed his horror of suicide. "How dreadful," he said, "it would be for the children! If nothing else would deter me, that would." In 1846 appeared "Sketehes from Life, by the late Laman Blanchard: with a Memoir of the Author by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart.;" who says of Blanchard: "He was thoroughly honest, true, and genuine; ever ready to confer a kindness; and of a grateful disposi tion, which exaggerated into obligation the most commonplace returns to his own affectionate feelings and ready friendship." THE ELOQUENT PASTOR DEAD. He taught the cheerfulness that still is ours, The sweetness that still lurks in human powers: If heaven be full of stars, the earth has flowers! |