To hear the lark begin his flight, Oft listening how the hounds and horn Under the hawthorn in the dale. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landscape round it measures; Russet lawns, and fallows gray, Where the nibbling flocks do stray; Towers and battlements it sees Of herbs, and other country messes, And the jocund rebecks sound And young and old come forth to play Till the livelong daylight fail: Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the junkets eat; She was pinch'd, and pull'd, she said; And he, by friar's lantern led, Tells how the drudging goblin sweat When, in one night, ere glimpse of morn, And, crop-full, out of doors he flings, And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In saffron robe, with taper clear, And ever, against eating cares, Such as the meeting soul may pierce, The hidden soul of harmony; That Orpheus' self may heave his head, Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear Of Pluto, to have quite set free Milton. IF THE ISLAND. F the author of the Irish Melodies had ever had a little isle so much his own as I have possessed, he might not have found it so sweet as the song anticipates. It has been my fortune, like Robinson Crusoe, to be thrown on such a desolate spot; and I felt so lonely, though I had a follower, that I wish Moore had been there. I had the honour of being in that tremendous action off Finisterre, which proved the end of the earth to many a brave fellow. I was ordered with a boarding party forcibly to enter the Santissima Trinidada; but in the act of climbing into the quarter-gallery, which, however, gave no quarter, was rebutted by the but-end of a gun —a marine's; who remained the quarter-master of the place. I fell senseless into the sea, and should no doubt have perished in the waters of oblivion, but for the kindness of John Monday, who picked me up to go adrift with him in one of the ship's boats. All our oars were carried away,—that is to say, we did not carry away any oars; and while shot was raining, our feeble hailing was unheeded. As may be supposed, our boat was anything but the jolly-boat; for we had no provisions to spare in the middle of an immense waste. We were, in fact, adrift in the cutter, with nothing to cut. We had not even junk for junketing, and nothing but salt-water, even if the wind should blow fresh. Famine indeed seemed to stare each of us in the face,—that is, we stared at one another. We were truly in a very disagreeable pickle, with oceans of brine and no beef; and, I fancy, we would have exchanged a pound of gold for a pound of flesh. No bread rose in the east, and in the opposite point we were equally disappointed. We could not compass a meal any how, but got mealy-mouthed, notwithstanding. Time hung heavy on our hands, for our fast days seemed to pass very slowly; and our strength was rapidly sinking, from being so much afloat. Still we nourished Hope, though we had nothing to give her. But at last we lost all prospect of land, if one may say so when no land was in sight. The weather got thicker as we were getting thinner; and though we kept a sharp watch, it was a very bad look-out. We could see nothing before us but nothing to eat and drink. At last the fog cleared off, and we saw some. thing like land right ahead; but, alas! the wind was in our teeth as well as in our stomachs. We could do nothing but "keep her near," and as we |