+ PROEM. I LOVE the old melodious lays Which softly melt the ages through, The songs of Spenser's golden days, Arcadian Sidney's silvery phrase, Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew. Yet, vainly in my quiet hours To breathe their marvellous notes I try; I feel them, as the leaves and flowers In silence feel the dewy showers, And drink with glad still lips the blessing of the sky. The rigor of a frozen clime, The harshness of an untaught ear, The jarring words of one whose rhyme Beat often Labor's hurried time, Or Duty's rugged march through storm and strife, are here. Of mystic beauty, dreamy grace, No rounded art the lack supplies; Unskilled the subtle lines to trace Or softer shades of Nature's face, I view her common forms with unanointed eyes. 135201 Nor mine the seer-like power to show The secrets of the heart and mind; To drop the plummet-line below Our common world of joy and woe, A more intense despair or brighter hope to find. Yet here at least an earnest sense Of human right and weal is shown; A hate of tyranny intense, And hearty in its vehemence, As if my brother's pain and sorrow were my own. Oh Freedom! if to me belong Nor mighty Milton's gift divine, Nor Marvel's wit and graceful song, Still with a love as deep and strong As theirs, I lay, like them, my best gifts on thy shrine! AMESBURY, 11th mo., 1847. CLERICAL OPPRESSORS, ...... 145 LINES, FROM A LETTER TO A YOUNG CLERICAL FRIEND,⚫ 213 LINES, WRITTEN FOR THE ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE "FIRST of August," AT MILTON, 1846, 161 Lines, written on reading Gov. Ritner's Message of 1836, 153 THE MASS. GENERAL ASSOCIATION, 1837, · 155 THE WORLD'S CONVENTION OF THE FRIENDS OF EMANCIPATION, HELd |