Then steal

away with eyes

that glisten,

Again to linger round and listen.

Oh! can she bear to think that he

Whom she has loved so tenderly,

Her only earthly hope and stay,

For ever should be wrench'd away?
No, no!-to such o'erpowering grief
Oblivion brings a short relief:

She hears no sound, all objects swim
Before her sight confused and dim;
She feels each sick'ning sense decay,

Sinks shudd'ring down, and faints away!

Her child revives,-its fit is o'er;

When with affrighted zeal it tries

By voice and kisses to restore

The mother's dormant faculties ;

Till nature's tides with quicken'd force
Resume their interrupted course :

Her eyes she opens, sees her boy,

Gazes with sense-bewilder'd start,

Utters a thrilling cry of joy,

Clasps him in transport to her heart, Stamps kisses on his mouth, his cheek, Looks up to heaven, and tries to speak; But voice is drown'd in heaving throbs,

Outgushing tears, and gasping sobs.

THE SUN'S ECLIPSE.-JULY 8TH, 1842.

"TIS cloudless morning, but a frown misplaced,

Cold-lurid-strange,

The summer smile from Nature's brow hath chased.

What fearful change,

What menacing catastrophe is thus

Usher'd by such prognostics ominous?

Is it the light of day, this livid glare,

Death's counterpart:—

What means the withering coldness in the air

That chills my heart,

And what the gloom portentous that hath made

The glow of morning a funereal shade?

O'er the Sun's disc a dark orb wins its slow

Gloom-deep'ning way,

Climbs-spreads-enshrouds-extinguishes-and lo! The god of day

Hangs in the sky, a corpse! th' usurper's might

Hath storm'd his throne, and quench'd the life of light!

A pall is on the earth-the screaming birds

To covert speed;

Bewilder'd and aghast, the bellowing herds

Rush o'er the mead;

While men, pale shadows in the ghastly gloom,
Seem spectral forms just risen from the tomb.

Transient, tho' total was that drear eclipse:

With might restored

The Sun re-gladden'd earth-but human lips

Have never pour'd

In mortal ears the horrors of the sight

That thrill'd my soul that memorable night.

Το every distant zone and fulgent star

Mine eyes could reach,

And the wide waste was one chaotic war;

O'er all and each,

Above-beneath-around me-everywhere,

Was anarchy-convulsion-death-despair.

'Twas noon, and yet a deep unnatural night Enshrouded Heaven,

Save where some orb unsphered, or satellite

Franticly driven,

Glared as it darted through the darkness dread,

Blind-rudderless-uncheck'd-unpiloted.

A thousand simultaneous thunders crash'd,

As here and there

Some rushing planet 'gainst another dash'd,

Shooting thro' air

Volleys of shatter'd wreck, when, both destroy'd,

Founder'd and sank in the engulphing void.