And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn in the dale.'

L'ALLEGRO. (MILTON.)

HASTE thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful jollity,

Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles,

Such as hang on Hebe's 2 cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled care derides,
And laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as you go

On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
And if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,

To live with her and live with thee

In unreproved pleasures free;

1 Quips and cranks, jokes.

To hear the lark begin his flight,
And, singing, startle the dull night
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise.
Then to come, in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good morrow,
Through the sweet-brier or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine,

While the cock with lively din
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack or the barn-door
Stoutly struts his dames before :
Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerily rouse the slumbering morn,
From the side of some hoar hill
Through the high wood echoing shrill :
Some time walking, not unseen,
By hedgerow elms or hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate

Where the great sun begins his state,
Robed in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight; 2
While the ploughman near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrowed land,
And the milkmaid singeth blythe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
While the landscape round it measures :

1 Dappled dawn, a morning when the sky is spotted with clouds. 2 Dight, dressed.

Russet lawns and fallows grey,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray:
Mountains on whose barren breast
The labouring clouds do often rest;
Meadows trim with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks and rivers wide,
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees;
Where, perhaps, some beauty lies,
The cynosure of neighbouring eyes.

Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon 2 and Thyrsis,2 met,
Are at their savoury dinner set,
Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phyllis 3 dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves
With Thestylis 3 to bind the sheaves;
Or if the earlier season lead,

To the tanned haycock in the mead.

Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecs 4 sound,
To many a youth and many a maid
Dancing in the chequered shade;
And young and old come forth to play

On a sunshine holiday.

1 Cynosure, the pole-star, to which sailors always look. Hence it has come to mean anything that strongly attracts attention.

2 Corydon and Thyrsis, ancient shepherds.

3 Phyllis and Thestylis, ancient shepherdesses.

4 Rebecs, stringed musical instruments.

HUMAN LIFE. (SAMUEL ROGERS.)

Samuel Rogers, an eminent English poet, was born near London in 1762. His father was a wealthy London banker, and in due time the poet became a partner in the establishment. He first appeared as an author in 1786, when he published a poem entitled 'An Ode to Superstition.' The Pleasures of Memory, which is his best poem, appeared in 1792, Human Life' in 1819, and Italy' in 1822. His writings are all remarkable for the great beauty and taste which they display. He died in 1855.

THE lark has sung his carol in the sky;

The bees have hummed their noontide harmony;
Still in the vale the village bells ring round,

Still in Llewellyn Hall the jests resound:
For now the caudle-cup is circling there;

Now, glad at heart, the gossips breathe their prayer,

And, crowding, stop the cradle to admire,
The babe, the sleeping image of his sire.

A few short years, and then these sounds shall hail The day again, and gladness fill the vale;

So soon the child a youth, the youth a man,
Eager to run the race his fathers ran.

Then the huge ox shall yield the broad sirloin;
The ale, new-brewed, in floods of amber shine:
And, basking in the chimney's ample blaze,
'Mid many a tale told of his boyish days,
The nurse shall cry, of all her ills beguiled,
''Twas on these knees he sate so soft, and smiled.'
And soon again shall music swell the breeze;
Soon, issuing forth, shall glitter through the trees
Vestures of nuptial white; and hymns be sung,
And violets scattered round; and old and young,
In every cottage porch, with garlands green,
Stand still to gaze, and, gazing, bless the scene;
While, her dark eyes declining, by his side
Moves in her virgin-veil the gentle bride.

And once, alas! nor in a distant hour,
Another voice shall come from yonder tower;
When in dim chambers long black weeds are seen,
And weepings heard where only joy has been ;
When by his children borne, and from his door
Slowly departing, to return no more,

He rests in holy earth with them that went before.
And such is human life, still gliding on,

It glimmers like a meteor, and is gone.

NOTE. The four periods of human life-birth, coming of age, marriage, and death.