The silent workings of thy heart Do almost seem to have a part With our humanity! THE WHITE HARE. Ir was the sabbath eve-we went, The twilight hour to pass, Where we might hear the water flow, In darker grandeur-as the day The purple mountain stood, Seemed mingling with the flood. The cooling dews their balm distilled; A holy joy our bosoms thrilled; Our thoughts were free as air; And, by one impulse moved, did we Together pour instinctively Our songs of gladness there. The green wood waved its shade hard by, While thus we wove our harmony: Lured by the mystic strain, A snow-white hare, that long had been Her beauty, 't was a joy to note— Her wild yet gentle eye- All motionless, with head inclined, Till the last note had died-and then Back to her greenwood bowers. Once more the magic sounds we triedAgain the hare was seen to glide From out her sylvan shade; Go, happy thing! disport at will- Or rest in leafy bower: The harrier may beset thy way, We know not, and we ne'er may know 5 THE SEA-BIRD. In its shriek thou dost rejoice; Answer shriller than its voice. Bird, of nervous winged flight, Flashing silvery to the sun, Sporting with the sea-foam whiteWhen will thy wild course be done Whither tends it? Has the shore No alluring haunt for thee? Nook, with tangled vines grown o'er, Scented shrub, or leafy tree? Is the purple seaweed rarer Than the violet of the spring? Is the snowy foam-wreath fairer Than the apple's blossoming? Shady grove and sunny slope Seek but these, and thou shalt meet Birds not born with storm to cope, Hermits of retirement sweet Where no winds too rudely swell, Gone! where dark waves foam and dash If to struggle with the storm Cheerful the allotment given, Escape at last, like thee, to heaven! MARIA JAMES. (Born 1795). IN 1833, Bishop Potter, then one of the professors in Union College, was shown by his wife, who had just returned from a visit to Rhinebeck on the Hudson, the Ode for the Fourth of July which is quoted on the next page, and informed that it was the production of a young woman at service in the family of a friend there, whom he had often noticed on account of her retiring and modest manners, and who had been in that capacity more than twenty years. When further advised that these lines had been thrown off with great rapidity and apparent ease, and that the writer had been accustomed almost from childhood to find pleasure in similar efforts, the information awakened a lively interest, and led him to examine other pieces from the same hand, and finally to introduce them to the public notice, in a preface over his signature to the volume entitled Wales and other Poems, by MARIA JAMES, published in 1839. MARIA JAMES is the daughter of poor but pious parents who emigrated to this country from Wales, near the beginning of the present century, and settled near the slate quarries in the northern part of New York. Her remaining history is told in an interesting manner in the following extracts from a letter which she addressed to Mrs. Potter: "Toward the completion of my seventh year, I found myself on ship-board, surrounded by men, wo men and children, whose faces were unknown to me. It was here, perhaps, that I first began to learn in a part cular manner from observation- soon discovering that those children who were handsome or smartly dressed received much more attention than myself, who had neither of these recommendations: however, instead of giving way to feelings of envy and jealousy, my imagination was revelling among the fruits and flowers which I expected to find in the land to which we were bound. I also had an opportunity to learn a little English during the voyage, as Take care, and Get out of the way,' seemed reiterated from land's end to land's end. "After our family were settled in some measure, I was sent to school, my father having commenced teaching me at home some time previous. I think there was no particular aptaess to learn about me. After I could read, I took much delight in John Rogers's last advice to his children, with all the excellent et cæteras to be found in the old English Primer. I was also fond of reading the common hymnbook. The New Testament was my only school-book. Thus accomplished, I happened one day to hear a young woman read Addison's inimita ble paraphrases of the twenty-third psalm: I listened as to the voice of an angel. Those who know the power of good reading or good speaking, need not be told that, where there is an ear for sound, the manner in which either is done will make every possible difference. This, probably, was the first time that I ever heard a good reader. "My parents again removing, I found myself in a school where the elder children used the American Preceptor. I listened in transport as they read Dwight's Columbia, which must have been merely from the smoothness of its sound, as 1 could have had but very little knowledge of its meaning. I was now ten years of age, and as an opportunity offered which my parents saw fit to embrace, I entered the family in which I now reside, where, besides learning many useful household occupations, that care and attention was paid to my words and actions as is seldom to be met with in such situations. I had before me some of the best models for good reading and good speaking; and any child, with a natural ear for the beautifal in language, will notice these things, and though their conversation may not differ materially from that of others in their line of life, they will almost invariably think in the style of their admiration. "The Bible here, as in my father's house, was the book of books, the heads of the family constantly im pressing on all, that the fear of the Lord is the be ginning of wisdom,' and that to 'depart from iniquity is understanding.' There is scarcely anything that can affect the mind of young persons like those lessons of wisdom which fall from lips they love and respect. Besides frequent opportunities of hearing instructive books read, my leisure hours were often devoted to one or the other of these works: first, the Female Mentor, comprising within itself a little epitome of elegant literature; two odd volumes of the Adventurer; Miss Hannah More's Cheap Repository; and Pilgrim's Progress. During a period of nearly seven years which I spent in this family, the newspapers were more or less filled with the wars and fightings of our European neighbors. My imagination took fire, and I lent an ear to the whispers of the muse. "T was then that first she pruned the wing; 'Twas then she first essayed to sing.' But the wing was powerless, and the song without melody. As I advanced toward womanhood, I shrunk from the nickname of poet, which had been awarded me: the very idea seemed the height of presump tion. In my seventeenth year I left this situation to learn dressmaking. I sewed neatly, but too slow to insure success. My failure in this was always a sub ject of regret. After this, I lived some time in dif ferent situations, my employment being principally in the nursery. In each of these different families I had access to those who spoke the purest English, also frequent opportunities of hearing correct and elegant readers-at least I believed them such by the effect produced on my feelings; and although nineteen years have nearly passed away since my return to the home of my early life, I have not ceased to remember with gratitude the kind treatment received from different persons at this period, while my attachment to their children has not been oblitcrated by time nor by absence, and is likely to continue till death...... "With respect to the few poems which you have been so kind as to overlook, I can hardly say myself how they came to be written. I recollect, many years ago, of trying something in this way for the amusement of a little boy who was very dear to me; except this, with a very few other pieces, long forgotten, no attempt of the kind was made until The Mother's Lament, and Elijah, with a number of epitaphs, which were written previous to those which have been produced within the last six years. The subject of the Hummingbird, (the oldest of these,) was taken captive by my own hand. The Adventure is described just as it happened. Wales is a kind of retrospect of the days of childhood....... Of Ambition, permit me, dear madam, to call your attention to the summer of 1832, when yourself, with the other ladies of this family, were reading Bourri enne's Life of Napoleon Bonaparte: I had opportu nities of hearing a little sometimes, which brought forcibly to my mind certain conversations which I heard in the early part of my life respecting this wonderful man. The poem was produced the following summer. In the year 1819, The American Flag appeared in the New York American, signed 'Croaker & Co.': this kindled up the poetic fires in my breast, which, however, did not find utterance until fourteen years afterward, in the Ode on the Fourth of July, 1833. This appearing in print, some who did not know me very well inquired of others, 'Do you suppose she ever wrote it? Being answered in the affirmative, it was imagined 'she must have had help.' These remarks gave rise to the question, What is poetry? The Album was begun and carried through without previous arrangement or design, laid aside when the mind was weary, and taken up again just as the subject happened to present itself. Friendship was produced in the same way. Many of the pieces are written from impressions received in youth, particularly the Whip poorwill, the Meadow Lark, the Firefly, &c." In the Introduction to her poems Bishop Potter vindicates in an admirable manner, against the sneers of Johnson, the propriety of recognising the abilities of the humblest classes. It will be seen that the poems of Maria James will bear a very favorable comparison with the compositions of any of the "uneducated poets" whose names are celebrated in Mr. Southey's fine essay upon this subject. ODE, WRITTEN FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1833. I SEE that banner proudly wave- Not a stripe is torn from the broad array, Not a leaf is plucked from the branch he bears; Where bright magnolias bloom, And the orange with the lime tree vies In shedding rich perfume, A sound was heard like the ocean's roar, Was it the voice of the tempest loud, Or a sudden flash from a passing storm But it died away, and the sound of doves The links are all united still That form the golden chain, How feeble is language, how cold is the lay, To see that banner waving yet- No stain of crimson dye : And the eagle spreads his pinions fair, THE PILGRIMS. TO A LADY. WE met as pilgrims meet, Who are bound to a distant shrine, Who spend the hours in converse sweet From noon to the day's decline Soul mingling with soul, as they tell of their fears And their hopes, as they pass thro' the valley of tears. And still they commune with delight, Of pleasures or toils by the way, For one to the faithful is ever at hand, We met as soldiers meet, Ere yet the fight is wonEre joyful at their captain's feet Is laid their armor down: Each strengthens his fellow to do and to bear, And their foe his thousands o'ercome, Of safety, protection, and home: [conferred, Where they knew that their sovereign such favor "As eye hath not seen, as the ear hath not heard." We met as seamen meet, On ocean's watery plain, Where billows rise and tempests beat, But tempests they baffle, and billows they brave, They dwell on the scenes which have past, We met as brethren meet, Who are cast on a foreign strand, Whose hearts are cheered as they hasten to greet The city so fair to behold, The redeemed in their vestments of whiteIn those mansions of rest, where, mid pleasures unThey finally hope to unite: [told, Where ceaseless ascriptions of praise shall ascend To God and the Lamb in a world without end. How many a gallant ship Since then has crossed the sea, Deep freighted from the western world-But where is he? Oh, ne'er beside that hearth The unbroken ring shall meet, To tell th' adventurous tale, or join In converse sweet! For in that stranger-land His lonely grave is seen, Where northern mountains lift their heads In fadeless green. THE SOLDIER'S GRAVE.* IN Gallia's sunny fields, Where blooms the eglantine, And where luxuriant clusters bend The youth to manhood rose, ("Tis fancy tells the tale :) His step was swift as mountain deer And his cagle glance, Which told perception keen, "Of will to do and soul to dare," Deep fixed within. Perchance a mother's love, A father's tender care, With every kindly household bond, Perchance the darling one, The best beloved was he, Of all that gathered round the hearth How fair life's morn to him! The world was blithe and gay Hope, beckoning with an angel's smile, Led on the way. He left his native plain, He bade his home farewellAnd she, the idol of his heart, The fair Adele. Though sad the parting hour, What ardor fixed his breast, To view the streams, to tread the soil, Far in the West! From where the Huron's wave First greets the ruddy light, To where Superior, in its glow, Where rose the forest deep, Where stretched the giant shore, From Del Fuego's utmost bound To Labrador. The grave here spoken of was pointed out to the wri ter as the final resting place of a French officer-a single mound, without a stone to mark the spot, in Rutland county Vermont. TO A SINGING BIRD. Hus, hush that lay of gladness, Some melancholy strain, Of hopes for ever flown- The captive, bowed in sadness, Might call that lay of gladness Warm gushing, peals along, Would spend itself in song. Oft as I hear those tones of thine Though gloom or sunshine mark the hours Thy bosom, ne'ertheless, Will pour, as from its inmost fount, GOOD FRIDAY. THE scene is fresh before us, When Jesus drained the cup, As new the day comes o'er us When he was offered up The veil in sunder rending, The types and shadows flee, While heaven and earth are bending Their gaze on Calvary. Should mortal dare in numbers, Who came the lost to save. |