Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

11. Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and

[ocr errors]

store,

Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster

Follow'd fast and follow'd faster, till his song one burden

bore,

Till the dirges of his hope the melancholy burden bore
Of 'Nevermore,' of 'Nevermore.""

12. But, the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheel'd a cushion'd seat in front of bird, and bust, and door;

Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of

yore,―

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore,—

Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

13. Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable express

ing

To the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burn'd into my bosom's

core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease re

clining

On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated

o'er,

But whose velvet, violet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

14. Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an

unseen censer

Swung by angels, whose faint footfalls tinkled on the

[ocr errors]

tufted floor:

'Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-by these
angels he hath sent thee

Respite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of
Lenore!

Quaff, oh, quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget the lost
Lenore!

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

15. "Prophet!" cried I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!

Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest toss'd thee here ashore,

Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land en

chanted,

On this home by horror haunted,-tell me truly, I im

plore,

Is there, is there balm in Gilead? tell me, tell me, I implore."

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

16. "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that heaven that bends above us, by that God we both

adore,

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if within the distant

Aiden

It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name

Lenore,

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name
Lenore."

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

17. "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend,” I shriek'd, upstarting;

"Get thee back into the tempest and the night's Pluto

nian shore;

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath

spoken,

Leave my loneliness unbroken, quit the bust above my

door,

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

18. And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sit

ting,

On the pallid bust of Pallas, just above my chamber

door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,

And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow. on the floor,

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor,

Shall be lifted Nevermore!

LESSON CLVII.

WASHINGTON'S SWORD AND FRANKLIN'S STAFF.

J. Q. ADAMS.

1. THE Sword of Washington! The staff of Franklin! O, sir, what associations are linked in adamant with these names! Washington, whose sword was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when wielded in his country's cause! Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and the plow-share!—What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the benefactors of human kind! Washington and Franklin! What other two men, whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christendom, have left a deeper impression of themselves upon the age in which they lived, and upon all after time?

2. Washington, the warrior and the legislator! In war, contending, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race,—ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and by example, his reverence for the laws of peace, and for the tenderest sympathies of humanity; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord, among his own countrymen, into harmony and

union, and giving to that very sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed, in ancient times, to the lyre of Orpheus.

3. Franklin-The mechanic of his own fortune; teaching, in early youth, under the shackles of indigence, the way to wealth, and, in the shade of obscurity, the path to greatness; in the maturity of manhood, disarming the thunder of its terrors, the lightning of its fatal blast; and wresting from the tyrant's hand the still more afflictive scepter of oppression : while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic ocean, braving, in the dead of winter, the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the self-created Nation to the mightiest monarchs of Europe, the olive-branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace, on the pathless ocean, from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war.

4. And, finally, in the last stage of life, with fourscore winters upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the Presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of devout prayer, invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the Representatives of the North American People, to receive, in their name and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our great confederated Republic,— these sacred symbols of our golden age.

5. May they be deposited among the archives of our Government! And may every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the Universe, by whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world; and of prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our beloved country, from age to age, tili time shall be no more!

LESSON CLVIII.

THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT.

ROBERT BURNS.

2. Todlin, tottering. 2. Stacher, stagger. 2. Flichtering, fluttering. 2. Ingle, fire-place. 3. Belyve, by-and-by. 3. Tentie, careful. 4. Spiers, asks. 4. Uncos, strange things. 4. Gars, makes. 5. Eydent, diligent. 5. Jauk, to trifle. 6. Haflins, half. 7. Blate, bashful. 7. Laithfu', sheepish. 7. Lave, the rest. 8. Hawkie, cow. 8. Hallan, partition-wall. 8. Hain'd, kept. 8. Kebbuck, cheese. 8. Towmond, a twelve-month. 8. Lint, flax. 9. Lyart haffets, graylocks. 9. Wales, selects. 10. Beets, increases.

1. NOVEMBER chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh;
The shortening winter day is near a close;
The miry beast's retreating frae the pleugh;
The blackening trains o' craws to their repose;
The toil-worn cotter frae his labor goes,-

This night his weekly moil is at an end,—
Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes,
Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend,
And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend.

2. At length his lonely cot appears in view,
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree;

Th' expectant wee-things, todlin', stacher thro'
To meet their dad, wi' flichterin' noise and glee.
His wee bit ingle, blinkin' bonnily,

His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wifie's smile,
The lisping infant prattling on his knee,

Does a' his weary, carking cares beguile,

An' makes him quite forget his labor and his toil.

3. Belyve the elder bairns come drappin' in,

At service out, amang the farmers roun';
Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin
A cannie errand to a neebor town:

Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown,

In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e,
Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown,
Or deposit her sair-won penny-fee,

To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.

« AnteriorContinuar »