28 BYRON.-Born, 1788; Died, 1824. George Gordon, Lord Byron, was one of the greatest English poets of modern times. Badly brought up, his mind was unfortunately warped and morbid in its pride and sensitiveness, and an unhappy marriage still further affected him for evil. There is much in his poems to regret, but very much to admire. Perhaps had he lived longer he would have atoned for the perversities and evils of his earliest years. "Childe Harold " and many other poems are, notwithstanding, a glorious legacy to the world. THE NIGHT BEFORE WATERLOO.1 THERE was a sound of revelry2 by night, Music arose, with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! Did ye not hear it? No; 'twas but the wind, On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined; 1 Waterloo, fought on Sunday, June 18, 1815, between the English and their allies, under Wellington, and the French under Napoleon. 2 revelry, festivity. The Duchess of Richmond gave a grand ball on the night of the 15th. • Brussels. 4 chivalry, here, the officers of the Belgian army. The two lines mean that, when the dance invites them, there is no thought of sleep till morning. But hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more, And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! Within a window'd niche of that high hall Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise? And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed, 6 The Duke of Brunswick. 7 He was mortally wounded at the battle of Jena, in 1807. 8 He was killed at Quatre Bras, imme diately before Waterloo. And near, the beat of the alarming drum, Or whispering, with white lips-"The foe! they come, they come !" And wild and high the "Cameron's gathering" rose! The stirring memory of a thousand years; And Evan's, Donald's, fame, rings in each clansman's ears And Ardennes13 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! 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 valour, rolling on the foe And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 9 Cameron's gathering. Highland war tune. 10 Lochiel was the title of the chief of the clan Cameron. 11 Albyn is an old name for Scotland. 12 The English. 13 Ardennes, a great forest, which reaches or reached from the northeast of France into Belgium. The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which, when rent, Which her own clay shall cover-heap'd and pent, Rider and horse-friend, foe-in one red burial blent! 29 THE SHIPWRECK. "Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down And grimly darkled o'er their faces pale, And the dim, desolate deep: twelve days had Fear Been their familiar, and now Death was here. At half-past eight o'clock booms, hencoops, spars, And all things, for a chance, had been cast loose, That still could keep afloat the struggling tars, For yet they strove, although of no great use; There was no light in heaven but a few stars; The boats put off, o'ercrowded with their crews; She gave a heel, and then a lurch to port, And going down head foremost-sunk, in short. Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave Then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell, And the sea yawned around her, like a hell, And down she sucked with her the whirling wave, Like one who grapples with his enemy, And strives to strangle him before he die. And first one universal shriek there rushed, A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry [Some of the sailors had got off in an open boat. The stanzas that follow are an episode in their story.] There were two fathers in this ghastly crew, And with them their two sons, of whom the one Was more robust and hardy to the view; But he died early; and when he was gone, His nearest messmate told his sire, who threw One glance on him, and said: "Heaven's will be done! I can do nothing;" and he saw him thrown Into the deep without a tear or groan. The other father had a weaklier child, |