[We beg to thank Mr. Browning for permission to insert Nos. 33, 111, 121, and 128;
-Miss Ingelow for leave (per Messrs. Longman & Co.) to use No. 110;-Messrs. Smith,
Elder, & Co., for No. 11-Messrs. Chapinan, Hall, & Co. for 22, 23, 116, and 129;—
Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co. for 92, 125, and 145;-Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for 27, 93, and
150-Messrs. Nisbet & Co. for 3, 26, and 35;-Messrs. Ward, Lock, & Co. for 56, 57,
65, 131, and 148;-and Messrs. Griffith & Farran for No. 61.]

CHOICE POEMS AND LYRICS.

INTRODUCTION.

PIPING down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:-
"Pipe a song about a lamb:”
So I piped with merry cheer.
Piper, pipe that song again :”
So I piped; he wept to hear.
"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe,

66

Sing thy songs of happy cheer:"
So I sung the same again,

While he wept with joy to hear.
"Piper, sit thee down and write

In a book that all may read—”
So he vanish'd from my sight;
And I pluck'd a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,

And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

William Blake: 1757-1827.

William Blake was an artist as well as a poet. He illus trated his own works, and many others, by hand-coloured etchings and copper-plate engravings of weird and fanciful design. There was a touch of insanity in his nature which showed itself in nearly all his work. His poems, though couched in simple language, are sometimes difficult to understand. But they are sweet and wild, and linger long in the mind; and their tendency is always elevating by reason of their purity, and protest against worldliness and all the meaner passions of men.

B

THE GOODNESS OF PROVIDENCE.
(Paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm.)

THE Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noon-day walks He shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.
When in the sultry glebe1 I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
To fertile vales and dewy meads,
My weary wand'ring steps He leads,
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.

Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For Thou, O Lord, art with me still:
Thy friendly crook2 shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious 3 lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile ;4
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crown'd,
And streams shall murmur all around.

Joseph Addison: 1672-1719.

Best known by his contributions to the Spectator, Guardian, and Tatler, periodical papers on news, social subjects, and literature. His chief works in poetry are The Campaign and Cato, but his verse is inferior to his prose. Addison was made Secretary of State in 1717.

1 glebe-grassy plain.

2 crook-a shepherd's staff.

3 devious-strange and intricate.

♦ beguile—ameliorate, or soften by kind encouragement.

GOD THE COMFORTER.

O THOU who dry'st the mourner's tear!
How dark this world would be,
If, when deceived and wounded here,
We could not fly to Thee!

The friends, who in our sunshine live,
When winter comes are flown:
And he, who has but tears to give,
Must weep those tears alone.
But Thou wilt heal that broken heart,
Which, like the plants that throw
Their fragrance from the wounded part,
Breathes sweetness out of woe.

When joy no longer soothes nor cheers,
And e'en the hope that threw
A moment's sparkle o'er our tears,
Is dimmed and vanish'd too!

Oh! who would bear life's stormy doom,
Did not Thy wing of love

Come, brightly wafting through the gloom
Our peace-branch from above?

Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright
With more than rapture's ray;

As darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day!

Thomas Moore: 1779-1852.

Author of Irish Melodies, Lalla Rookh, and other poems. His verse is very musical, and its sweetness sometimes cloys. The Irish Melodies are the most graceful in thought, tender in feeling, and simple and refined in form of all his writings,-they are the best known, and will probably always remain the most popular,

1 peace-branch--the sending of an olive-branch was a token or an overture of peace in ancient times.