First at one, and then its fellow, THE STREET MUSICIAN; OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC. An Orpheus ! an Orpheus !-he works on the crowd, What an eager assembly! what an empire is this ! That errand-bound 'prentice was passing in hasteWhat matter! he's caught, and his time runs to waste The newsman is stopp'd, though he stops on the fret, And the half-breathless lamplighter, he's in the net! The porter sits down on the weight which he bore; That tall man, a giant in bulk and in height, Mark that cripple,-but little would tempt him to try Now, coaches and chariots ! roar on like a stream ; TO THE CUCKOO. O BLITHE new-comer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice : Or but a wandering voice? While I am lying on the grass, Thy twofold shout I hear, That seems to fill the whole air's space As loud far off as near. Though babbling only to the vale Of sunshine and of flowers, Thou bringest unto me a tale Of visionary hours. Thrice welcome, darling of the spring! Even yet thou art to me A voice, a mystery; The same whom in my schoolboy days I listen’d to; that Cry Which made me look a thousand ways, In bush, and tree, and sky. To seek thee did I often rove Through woods and on the green ; And thou wert still a hope, a love Still long’d for, never seen! 66 And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying “Yet,” said he, “poor piper as I am, “One ? fifty thousand !"- '-was the exclamation Of the astonishid Mayor and Corporation. (4.) THE CHARM. Into the street the Piper stept, Smiling first a little smile, In his quiet pipe the while, Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, Families by tens and dozens, Brothers, sisters, husbands, wivesFollow'd the Piper for their lives. From street to street he piped advancing, And step for step they follow'd dancing, Until they came to the river Weser, Wherein all plunged and perish'dSave one, who, stout as Julius Cæsar, Swam across and lived to carry (As he the manuscript he cherish’d) To Rat-land home his commentary, Which was : “At the first shrill notes of the pipe, I heard a sound as of scraping tripe, And putting apples, wondrous ripe, Into a cider-press's gripe : And a moving away of pickle-tub boards, And a leaving ajar of conserve cupboards, And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks, And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks; And it seem'd as if a voice (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery Is breathed) called out, 'O rats, rejoice! The world is grown to one vast drysaltery! your nuncheon, on, take on, crunch |