It soweth here with toil and care, But the harvest-time of Love is there. Oh! when a mother meets on high The babe she lost in infancy, Hath she not then, for pains and fears, The day of woe, the anxious night, An overpayment of delight? the most sincerely beloved of all English writers, was born in London in 1775. In 1796 his sister in a fit of madness killed her mother. Lamb's own reason had been unsettled, but, recovering, he renounced a youthful affection, and nobly devoted his life to the care of his sister. In the whole range of biography there is not an incident more deeply pathetic. Mary identified herself with some of her brother's work, notably Tales from Shakespeare. Lamb died in 1834, from the results of a slight fall. To Hester Savory WHEN maidens such as Hester die, A month or more hath she been dead, To think upon the wormy bed A springy motion in her gait, Of pride and joy no common rate I know not by what name beside She did inherit. Her parents held the Quaker rule But she was train'd in Nature's school, A waking eye, a prying mind, A heart that stirs, is hard to bind ; My sprightly neighbour ! gone before When from thy cheerful eyes a ray A Sonnet on Christian Names: Written in the Album of Miss Edith Southey IN Christian world Mary the garland wears! Charles Lamb Have bragged in verse. Of coarsest household stuff Should homely Joan be fashioned. But can You Barbara resist, or Marian? And is not Clare for love excuse enough? Yet, by my faith in numbers, I profess, Walter Savage Landor belonged to a Warwickshire family, and was born in 1775. He devoted his literary talent first to poetry, and addressed a lady under the name of 'Ianthe.' He wrote one or two plays, but his Imaginary Conversations first assured his position as a man of genius. Landor had no popular sympathies, but this knowledge did not weigh with him, for he declared, 'Ten accomplished men are esteemed by me a sufficient audience.' He was self-willed and impetuous. Meeting a young lady at a ball in 1811, on the instant he determined to marry her, and he did it. He had leisure to repent and write, 'Death itself to the reflective mind is less serious than marriage.' He died in 1864. Dreams IT often comes into my head That we may dream when we are dead, O that it were so! then my rest Her Lips OFTEN I have heard it said |