7. THE NICHT BEFORE WATERLOO.

[From Childe Harold, Canto III.

Sir Walter Scott said of these

stanzas, "I am not sure that any verses in our language surpass, in vigor and in feeling, this most beautiful description."]

THERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry,2 and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell; 3

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell ! 4

Did ye not hear it? No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.

1 There was, etc. On the eve of the figure synecdoche (see Def. 7) (June 15, 1815) of the march to which consists in putting the abWaterloo, the Duchess of Rich-stract for the concrete, “beauty' mond gave a grand ball at Brussels, meaning fair women, and chivthe English headquarters. The gen-alry" brave men, as expressed in eral officers were present, by com- the next line. mand of the Duke of Wellington, who wished to keep the people in ignorance of the approach of Napoleon.

2 Her beauty and her chivalry. This is a good example of that form

3

as a marriage bell. What is the figure?

4 But... knell. Observe the skill with which the transition is marked. Also note the effect of the suspense in the next stanza.

But hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more, As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!

Arm, arm! it is—it is the cannon's opening roar!

Within a windowed niche of that high hall Sat Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear That sound the first amidst the festival, And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear; And when they smiled because he deemed it near, His heart more truly knew that peal too well Which stretched his father2 on a bloody bier, And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell: He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness; And there were sudden partings; such as press The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,* Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise?

1 Brunswick's fated chieftain. The Duke of Brunswick fell at Waterloo.

3 was. A singular verb: yet several subjects follow, three of which are plural. Can this be justified

2 his father was mortally grammatically? wounded at Jena, fighting against Napoleon.

4 those mutual eyes. What is meant by this expression?

And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, The mustering squadron, and the clattering car, Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, And swiftly forming in the ranks of war: And the deep thunder peal on peal afar; And near, the beat of the alarming drum, Roused up the soldier ere the morning star; While thronged the citizens, with terror dumb, Or whispering, with white lips, "The foe!

come! they come!"

They

And wild and high the "Camerons' Gathering" rose!
The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills 1
Have heard and heard, too, have her Saxon foes:
How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills,
Savage and shrill! But with the breath that fills
Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers
With the fierce native daring which instills
The stirring memory of a thousand years,

And Evan's,2 Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!

And Ardennes 3 waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,
Over the unreturning brave, -alas!

1 Albyn's hills, the Highlands of Scotland.

2 Evan's, etc. Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant Donald, the "gentle Lochiel."

3 Ardennes. The wood of Soignies is supposed to be a remnant of the forest of Ardennes, famous in Shakespeare's As You Like It. 4 inanimate. Analyze.

Ere evening to be trodden like the grass,

Which, now beneath them, but above shall grow In its next verdure, when this fiery mass

Of living valor, rolling on the foe,

And burning with high hope, shall molder cold and low.

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay;

The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife;
The morn, the marshaling in arms; the day,
Battle's magnificently stern array!

The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent, The earth is covered thick with other clay, Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, Rider and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent!

XI. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

LIFE AND WORKS.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, the first American to attain to great poetical eminence, was born at Cummington, Massachusetts, Nov. 3, 1794. His father, Peter Bryant, was a physician of high character and attainments, and devoted unusual care to the education of his son. He fostered William's poetic taste, impressing upon him the value of "correctness and compression" in his style. The poet, in his beautiful Hymn to Death, pays this tribute to his father:

'For he is in his grave who taught my youth
The art of verse, and in the bud of life
Offered me to the Muses. Oh, cut off
Untimely when thy reason in its strength,
Ripened by years of toil and studious search,
And watch of Nature's silent lessons, taught
Thy hand to practice but the lenient art
To which thou gavest thy laborious days,
And, last, thy life."

It is said that young Bryant contributed verses to his home newspaper before he was ten years of age. Certain it is that The Embargo was written when he was only thirteen, and that in his nineteenth year he wrote Thanatopsis, which still holds its place in general estimation as one of the most impressive poems in our language.

After pursuing his studies at Williams College for two years, his proficiency in the classics being notable,