They buried him on that far strand, Heigho! the wind and rain; His face turned towards his love's own land, Ah, well-a-day! how vain. The wearied heart was laid at rest, Heigho! the wind and rain; The dream of her he liked best, Ah, well-a-day! again. They nothing said, but many a tear, Rained down on that knight's lowly bier, They nothing said, but many a sigh, With solemn mass and orison, And on it graved with daggers bright, 'Here lies a true and gentle knight.' JEANIE MORRISON. I've wandered east, I've wandered west, Through mony a weary way; But never, never can forget The love o' life's young day! The fire that's blawn on Beltane e'en May weel be black gin Yule ; But blacker fa' awaits the heart Where first fond luve grows cule. 1 The Third of May. Oh dear, dear Jeanie Morrison, As memory idly summons up The blithe blinks o' langsyne. 'Twas then we luvit ilk ither weel, Sweet time, sad time! twa bairns at schule, 'Twas then we sat on ae high bink1, To leir2 ilk ither lear3: And tones, and looks, and smiles were shed, I wonder, Jeanie, often yet Cheek touchin' cheek, loof locked in loof, When baith bent doun ower ae braid page, Thy lips were on thy lesson, but My lesson was in thee. Oh mind ye how we hung our heads, And mind ye o' the Saturdays (The schule then skail't at noon) When we ran aft to speel? the braes- My head rins round and round about, As ane by ane the thochts rush back VOL. IV. O mornin' life! O mornin' luve! When hinnied1 hopes around our hearts, Oh, mind ye, luve, how oft we left The summer leaves hung ower our heids, And in the gloamin' i' the wud The throstle whusslit sweet. The throstle whusslit i' the wud, Concerted harmonies; And on the knowe3 abune the burn, In the silentest o' joy, till baith Aye, aye, dear Jeanie Morrison, That was a time, a blessed time, When hearts were fresh and young, I marvel, Jeanie Morrison, Gin I hae been to thee, As closely twined wi' earliest thochts Oh, tell me gin their music fills Thine ear as it does mine; Oh, say gin e'er your heart grows grit 1 honeyed. 2 deafening noisy. M m 3 knoll. I've wandered east, I've wandered west, I've borne a weary lot; But in my wanderings, far or near, Ye never were forgot. The fount that first burst frae this heart, Still travels on its way; And channels deeper as it rins The luve o' life's long day. O dear, dear Jeanie Morrison, But I could hug all wretchedness, And happy could I die, Did I but ken your heart still dreamed O' bygane days and me. THOMAS HOOD. [THOMAS HOOD was born in London in May, 1799. His chief poetical works, scattered during his life-time in various publications, are contained in two volumes entitled respectively Poems, 1846, and Poems of Wit and Humour, 1847. A complete edition of his works appeared in 1862. He died in May, 1845, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, where, some years after his death, a monument was erected to him by public subscription.] Since the issue in 1860 of the delightful Memorials of Thomas Hood by his son and daughter, both of whom are now dead, it has not been easy to dissociate the poet from the touching picture of him which those pages present. Nor indeed does literature often afford the spectacle of a heroism so smiling as that of the indefatigable manufacturer of Whims and Oddities, Comic Annuals, and the like,-pumping up ceaseless fun for a subsistence,-faultless in his relations of husband and father,-patient under sickness and 'lack of pence' and concluding, at last, that the life which to him, as to Pope, had been 'a long disease,' was still worth living, and the world he was leaving a beautiful one, and not so bad, humanly speaking, even as people would make it out.' Whether, under favourable circumstances, he would have produced more work of a high character is a question that it is scarcely profitable to discuss; but it is manifest that during his life-time the somewhat coarse-palated public welcomed most keenly not so much his best as his second-best. The 'Tom Hood' they cared for was not the delicate and fanciful author of the Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, but the Hood of Miss Kilmansegg and her Precious Leg, -the master of broad-grin and equivoque, the delightful parodist, the irrepressible and irresistible joker and Merry-Andrew. It is not to be denied that much of his work in this way is excellent |