“ Among bride's-men, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,
(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,)
"O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?"—
"I long woo'd your daughter, my suit you denied;—
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide—
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar." ”

“ ENGLAND, 1832-1898
A Song of Love
Say, what is the spell, when her fledglings are cheeping,
That lures the bird home to her nest?
Or wakes the tired mother, whose infant is weeping,
To cuddle and croon it to rest?
What the magic that charms the glad babe in her arms,
Till it cooes with the voice of the dove?
'Tis a secret, and so let us whisper it low—
And the name of the secret is Love!
For I think it is Love,
For I feel it is Love,
For I'm sure it is nothing but Love! ”

“ Poetry is the chosen language of childhood and youth. The baby repeats words again and again for the mere joy of their sound: the melody of nursery rhymes gives a delight which is quite independent of the meaning of the words. Not until youth approaches maturity is there an equal pleasure in the rounded periods of elegant prose. It is in childhood therefore that the young mind should be stored with poems whose rhythm will be a present delight and whose beautiful thoughts will not lose their charm in later years. ”

“ A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. ”

“ Lo, their answer at last!
"Has Persia come,—does Athens ask aid,—may Sparta befriend?
Nowise precipitate judgment—too weighty the issue at stake!
Count we no time lost time which lags thro' respect to the Gods!
Ponder that precept of old, 'No warfare, whatever the odds
In your favor, so long as the moon, half-orbed, is unable to take
Full-circle her state in the sky!' Already she rounds to it fast:
Athens must wait, patient as we—who judgment suspend."
Athens,—except for that sparkle,—thy name, I had moldered to ash! ”

“ ENGLAND, 1800-1859
Horatius at the Bridge
The consul's brow was sad, and the consul's speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall, and darkly at the foe.
"Their van will be upon us before the bridge goes down;
And if they once may win the bridge, what hope to save the town?"
Then out spoke brave Horatius, the captain of the gate:
"To every man upon this earth death cometh, soon or late.
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand may well be stopped by three. ”

“ Test Pan, trust me!
Go, bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have faith
In the temples and tombs! Go, say to Athens, 'The Goat-God saith:
When Persia—so much as strews not the soil—is cast in the sea,
Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your most and least,
Goat-thigh to greaved-thigh, made one cause with the free and the bold!'
"Say Pan saith: 'Let this, foreshowing the place, be the pledge!'"
(Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear
—Fennel,—I grasped it a-tremble with Dew—whatever it bode) ,
"While, as for thee ..." But enough! He was gone. ”

“ All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower—
Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!
* * * * *
Pheidippides
First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock!
Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honor to all!
Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise
—Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and spear!
Also ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer,
Now, henceforth and forever,—O latest to whom I upraise
Hand and heart and voice! For Athens, leave pasture and flock! ”

“ Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
* * * * *
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ENGLAND, 1770-1850
The Solitary Reaper
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland lass,
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
Oh, listen! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound. ”

“ ENGLAND, 1809-1892
Early Spring
Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plow'd hills
With loving blue;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The throstles too.
Opens a door in Heaven;
From skies of glass
A Jacob's ladder falls
On greening grass,
And o'er the mountain-walls
Young angels pass.
Before them fleets the shower,
And bursts the buds,
And shine the level lands,
And flash the floods;
The stars are from their hands
Flung thro' the woods. ”

“ Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth;
Razed to the ground is Eretria—but Athens, shall Athens sink,
Drop into dust and die—the flower of Hellas utterly die,
Die with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, the stander-by? ”

“ Ah, how wonderful is the advent of the spring!—
the great annual miracle of the blossoming of Aaron's
rod, repeated on myriads and myriads of branches!
—the gentle progression and growth of herbs,
flowers, trees,—gentle, and yet irrepressible,—
which no force can stay, no violence restrain, like
love, that wins its way and cannot be withstood by
any human power, because itself is divine power. ”

“ Within, the faces of friends brightened the gloomy
walls; the returning footsteps of the long-absent
gladdened the threshold; and all the sweet amenities
of social life again resumed their interrupted reign.
The first snow came. How beautiful it was, falling
so silently, all day long, all night long, on the
mountains, on the meadows, on the roofs of the
living, on the graves of the dead! ”

“ What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless:
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness. ”

“ Rather I hail thee, Parnes,—trust to thy wild waste tract!
Treeless, herbless, lifeless mountain! What matter if slacked
My speed may hardly be, for homage to crag and to cave
No deity deigns to drape with verdure?—at least I can breathe,
Fear in thee no fraud from the blind, no lie from the mute! ”

“ Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, England, in 1812. He
was educated at the University of London. He married Elizabeth
Barrett, the poet, and together they lived much of their time in
Italy. They were deeply interested in the struggle of Italy for
freedom, and both wrote on this subject. In his long life Browning
wrote many volumes of poems, and it is difficult to choose among
them. "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is always a favorite with the young
people, as are "How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix,"
"Herve Riel," and "Ratisbon." ”

“ Relieved of the strain of the struggle for civil and
religious liberty, the people could satisfy their inclinations toward
the beautiful in art and life, and from that time until the present
day the writers of America have held their own in the front ranks
of the authors of the English-speaking peoples.
Joseph Rodman Drake, the first American poet to win
distinction, was born in New York City in 1795. He was educated in
Columbia College. He died prematurely when only twenty-five years old.
His best-known poems are "The Culprit Fay" and "The American Flag." ”

“ The reign of Queen Elizabeth is often called the Golden Age of
English literature. Not only did Spenser and Shakespeare live then,
but a large number of minor poets also rendered the period
illustrious. Among the dramatic poets Christopher Marlowe, Beaumont
and Fletcher, who wrote together, and Ben Jonson hold an honorable
position. The most noted lyric poets of the day were George Herbert,
Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Philip Sidney. ”

“ The reign of Queen Victoria from a literary standpoint is
second only to that of Elizabeth in brilliancy. The Victorian Age is
usually applied to the whole century, during the better part of which
Victoria reigned. The literature of this age is rich with the writings
of Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his sister
Christina, William Morris, Matthew Arnold, Edwin Arnold, Jean
Ingelow, Owen Meredith, Arthur Hugh Clough, Adelaide Procter, and a
host of minor poets. ”

“ The bravest shrank like boys who rouse an old bear in the wood.
But meanwhile ax and lever have manfully been plied,
And now the bridge hangs tottering above the boiling tide.
"Come back, come back, Horatius!" loud cried the fathers all ”

“ Alexander Pope was born in London, May 21, 1688. Sickly and
deformed, he was unable to attend school, but he was nevertheless
a great student. His writings are witty and satirical. His best-known
poems are "Essay on Man," "Translation of the Iliad," "Essay on
Criticism," and "The Rape of the Lock." He died in 1744.
Thomas Gray was born in London in 1716. He was educated at
Eton, and Peter-House College, Cambridge. He lived all his life at
Cambridge, ultimately being appointed professor of Modern History. ”

“ Hush—'tis the lullaby Time is singing—
Hush, and heed not, for all things pass;
Hush, ah hush! and the Scythes are swinging
Over the clover, over the grass!
* * * * *
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
ENGLAND, 1837-
White Butterflies
Fly, white butterflies, out to sea,
Frail, pale wings for the wind to try,
Small white wings that we scarce can see,
Fly!
Some fly light as a laugh of glee,
Some fly soft as a long, low sigh ”

“ I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
—From "HENRY VIII."
* * * * *
BEN JONSON
ENGLAND, 1574-1637
The Noble Nature
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make man better be ”

“ He was about to seek his fortune in America
when his first volume of poems was published and won him fame at
once. His style is simple and sincere, with a fire of intensity.
His best poems are "Tam o'Shanter" and "The Cottar's Saturday Night."
He died July 21, 1796.
William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland,
England, on April 7, 1770. He completed his education at St John's
College, Cambridge, taking his degree of B A in 1791. He was
appointed Poet Laureate in 1843, succeeding Robert Southey. He is
the poet of nature and of simple life. ”

“ His longest and best works are "The Cenci,"
"Prometheus Unbound," "The Revolt of Islam," and "Adonais," an elegy
on the death of his friend, the poet Keats, near whom he was buried.
John Keats was born in London, England, in 1795 or 1796. His
poem "Endymion" was criticised severely in the Quarterly
Review. Keats was so sensitive that this criticism is supposed to
have aggravated his malady, and thus to be responsible for his early
death. Among his other poems may be noted "Hyperion," "Lamia," and
"The Eve of St Agnes." He died at Rome in 1821. ”

“ Joseph Addison was born at Milston, England, May 1, 1672. He
completed his education at Queen's and Magdalen colleges, Oxford. He
entered the diplomatic service and rose steadily, becoming one of the
two principal secretaries of state two years before his death. He
attained a higher political position than any other writer has ever
achieved through his literary ability. With Steele he published
The Tatler, and later The Spectator, at first a daily
paper and afterward a tri-weekly one. He was a master of English
prose, and his poems are elevated and serious in style. ”

“ He has
been called "the greatest metrical inventor in English literature."
His works in French and Latin show him to be a poet in three
languages. His best-known works are "Poems and Ballads," "Songs
before Sunrise," and "Mary Stuart." He is the greatest living
English poet.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London, May 12, 1828. He
studied art in the antique school of the Royal Academy, and became
known as an artist before he won fame as a poet. ”

“ But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
* * * * *
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY
AMERICA, 1780-1843
The Star-Spangled Banner [1]
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming—
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds of the fight
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming! ”

“ Trinity College, Cambridge. His poem in honor of the restoration
of Charles II won him the position of Poet Laureate. His best-known
works are the poetic "Translation of Virgil's Aeneid," "Alexander's
Feast," "The Hind and the Panther," and the drama "The Indian
Emperor." He died in 1700.
The reign of Queen Anne was rendered brilliant by the writings
of Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Edward Young, James Thompson,
William Collins, Sir Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, and Daniel
Defoe. Not only were the poems of this period beautiful, but prose
also reached a high development. ”