When swords are out, and shriek and shout
Leave little room for prayer,

No fetter on man's arm or heart
Hangs half so heavy there."

I curse him by the gifts the land
Hath won from him and Rome,
The riving axe, the wasting brand,
Rent forest blazing home.

I curse him by our country's gods,
The terrible, the dark,

The breakers of the Roman rods,
The smiters of the bark.

Oh, misery, that such a ban
On such a brow should be!
Why comes he not in battle's van
His country's chief to be?
To stand a comrade by my side,
The sharer of my fame,
And worthy of a brother's pride,
And of a brother's name?

But it is past!-where heroes press
And cowards bend the knee,

Arminius is not brotherless,

His brethren are the free.

They come around :—one hour, and lighɩ
Will fade from turf and tide,

Then onward, onward to the fight,
With darkness for our guide.

To-night, to-night, when we shall meet

In combat face to face,

Then only would Arminius greet

The renegade's embrace.

The canker of Rome's guilt shall be

Upon his dying name; And as he lived in slavery,

So shall he fall in shame.

VERSES

ON SEEING THE SPEAKER ASLEEP IN HIS CHAIR IN ONE OF THE DEBATES OF THE FIRST REFORMED PARLIAMENT.

SLEEP, Mr. Speaker, 't is surely fair

If you may n't in your bed, that you should in your chair.

Louder and longer now they grow,

Tory and Radical, Ay and No;

Talking by night and talking by day.

Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may!

Sleep, Mr. Speaker; slumber lies
Light and brief on a Speaker's eyes.
Fielden or Finn in a minute or two

Some disorderly thing will do;
Riot will chase repose away—

Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may!

Sleep, Mr. Speaker. Sweet to men

Is the sleep that cometh but now and then,
Sweet to the weary, sweet to the ill,
Sweet to the children that work in the mill.
You have more need of repose than they—
Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may!

Sleep, Mr. Speaker, Harvey will soon
Move to abolish the sun and the moon;
Hume will no doubt be taking the sense
Of the House on a question of sixteen pence.
Statesmen will howl, and patriots bray-
Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may!

Sleep, Mr. Speaker, and dream of the time,
When loyalty was not quite a crime,

When Grant was a pupil in Canning's school,
And Palmerston fancied Wood a fool.
Lord, how principles pass away—

Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may.

I REMEMBER HOW MY CHILDHOOD FLEETED

I REMEMBER, I remember,

How my childhood fleeted by-

The mirth of its December,

And the warmth of its July;

On my brow, love, on my brow, love,
There are no signs of care,
But my pleasure's are not now, love,
What childhood's pleasure's were:

Then the bowers, then the bowers

Were as blithe as blithe could be,
And all their radiant flowers

Were coronals for me:

Gems to-night, love, gems to-night, love,
Are gleaming in my hair;

But they are not half so bright, love,

As childhood's roses were.

I was merry, I was merry,

When my little lovers came

With a lily, or a cherry,

Or a new invented game:

Now I've you, love, now I've you, love,
To kneel before me there;

But you know you're not so true, love,
As childhood's lovers were.