3

And hide in humbler scenes thy head;

How dost thou dare,

Where roses are,

Thy scents to shed?

Go, leave my bower, and live unknown,—
I'll rule the field of flowers alone."

"And dost thou think," the Laurel cried,
And raised its head with modest pride,
While on its little, trembling tongue,
A drop of dew incumbent hung-
"And dost thou think I'll leave this bower,
The seat of many a friendly flower,

The scene where first I grew ?

Thy haughty reign will soon be o'er,

And thy frail form will bloom no more;

My flower will perish, too;

But know, proud rose,

When winter's snows,

Shall fall where once thy beauties stood,

My pointed leaf of shining green
Will still amid the gloom be seen,

To cheer the leafless wood."

4. "Presuming fool!" the Wood-Rose cried,
And strove in vain her shame to hide;
But ah! no more the flower could say;

For while she spoke, a transient breeze
Came rustling through the neighboring trees,
And bore her boasted charms away.

5. And such, said I, is beauty's power;
Like thee she falls, poor trifling flower;
And if she lives her little day,

Life's winter comes with rapid pace,
And robs her form of every grace,
And steals her bloom away.

6. But in thy form, thou Laurel green,
Fair Virtue's semblance soon is seen:

In life she cheers each different stage,―
Spring's transient reign, and summer's glow,
And autumn mild, advancing slow,—
And lights the eye of age.

Iambic measure.—Lines consisting of four and three feet. 1. I love my coun | try's pine- | clad hills, Her thousand bright | and gushing rills,

Her sunshine and her shade;

Her rough and rugged rocks that rear

Their hoary heads high in the air,

In wild, fantastic forms.

2. I love her rivers deep and wide,

Those mighty streams that seaward glide,

To seek the ocean's breast;

Her smiling fields, her pleasant vales,
Her shady dells, her flowery dales,

The haunts of peaceful rest.

3. I love her forests dark and lone,

For there the wild bird's merry tone,
I hear from morn till night;

QUESTIONS. In what measure is the second exercise? How many feet in the lines ? Of what does an iambic consist? How is iambic measure aocented?

And there are lovelier flowers, I ween,
Than e'er in eastern lands were seen,
In varied colors bright.

4. Her forests and her valleys fair,

Her flowers that scent the morning air,
Have all their charms for me;-
But more I love my country's fame,
Those words, that echo deathless fame,
The land of Liberty.

EXERCISE III.

ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH.. -MONTGOMERY. Trochaic measure. Some lines of three feet with an additional long syllable, and others of three feet only.

1. Higher, higher, will wě | climb,
Up the mount of | glōrỹ,

That our names may live through time,

In our country's story;

Happy when our welfare calls,
He who conquers, he who falls.

2. Deeper, deeper, let us toil,

In the mines of knowledge;
Nature's wealth and learning's spoil,
Win from school and college;
Delve we there for richer gems,

Than the stars of diadems.

3. Onward, onward, may we press,

Through the path of duty;

QUESTIONS. In what measure is exercise third? How many feet do the lines con tain? Of what does a trochee consist? Which syllable is accented

Virtue is true happiness,

Excellence, true beauty;
Minds are of celestial birth;

Make we, then, a heaven of earth.

4. Closer, closer, let us knit

Hearts and hands together.

Where our fireside comforts sit
In the wildest weather;
O, they wonder wide who roam,
For the joys of life from home.
5. Nearer, dearer bands of love,
Draw our souls in union,
To our Father's house above,
To the saints' communion;

Thither, every hope ascend,
There, may all our labors end.

Anapestic and Iambic measures.-The fifth line and the seventh of the second stanza, end with an additional long syllable.

1. Åt the close of the day | when the hām | lět is still,
And mor | tǎls the sweets | of forget | fulness prōve;
When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill,
And naught but the nightingale's song in the grove ;--
It was thus, by the cave of the mountain afar,
While his harp rung symphonious, a hermit began;
No more with himself, or with nature at war,

He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.

QUESTIONS. In what measures is the fourth exercise written? Of what does an anapest consist? How accented?

2. And darkness and doubt are now flying away;
No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn;
Sc breaks on the traveler, faint and astray,

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.
See truth, love, and mercy, in triumph descend | ing,
And nature all glowing, in Eden's first bloom,

On the cold cheek of death, smiles and roses are blending, And beauty, immortal, awakes from the tomb.

DEPARTURE OF THE YEAR.-ANON.

1. Ŏ, wẽep | för thẻ earth | ǎnd the chil | dren of mēn! Awake the sad music of mountain and glen!

Pour out the deep voice of lament on the blast, For a year hath gone down to the grave of the past! 2. Lament! for the year, with its promise of bliss, Hath gone from a world full of mourning like this; And the hopes that it brought have been trampled in dust, And its paths have been paved with the hearts of the just! 3. Rejoice! for the day of redemption draws nigh!

Let loud halleluiahs resound through the sky!
Let the years roll away, and the darkness shall flee;
Rejoice and exult, for the earth shall be free!

EXERCISE V

THE FOX AND THE CROW.-JANE TAYLOR.

Anapestic and Iambic measures.-The first two lines and the fourth in the first stanza, commence with an iambic; all the other feet are anapestic.

1.

The fox and the crow,

In prōse, | I well knōw,

Măny good little girls | căn rehearse;

QUESTIONS. In what measure is exercise fifth? Of what do the lines consist ?