"A maiden knight-to me is given Such hope, I know not fear; I yearn to breathe the airs of heaven I muse on joy that will not cease, Whose odours haunt my dreams; This weight and size, this heart and eyes, SIR GALAHAD.— Tennyson. Pentameter. "All my life grows sweet, I know not how to name it; from behind Of mingling voices,- some were harsh, some kind, Aught but a loving message; so Earth sends One only question on it from the track Where I have passed, Friends, friends? we part as friends?' 66 PAX IN NOVISSIMO.- Miss Greenwell. Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume "I cannot go Where Universal Love not smiles around, Myself in Him, in Light ineffable! Come, then, expressive silence, muse his praise." "How can I teach your children gentleness, THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH.- Longfellow. Hexameter. "Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels." EVANGELINE. Longfellow. "When the heart goes before, like a lamp, and illumines the path way, Many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in darkness. Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted; If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters, returning ment; That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain. godlike, Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more worthy of heaven!"- Ibid. "Take from henceforth, as guides in the paths of existence, Innocence, child beloved, is a guest from the world of the blessed, Swings she in safety, she heedeth them not, in the ship she is sleeping. A N Calmly she gazes around in the turmoil of men; in the desert humble, Follows so long as she may her friend; O do not reject her, For she cometh from God and she holdeth the keys of the heavens." CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.- Bishop Tegnér. Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, and Hexameter. By slow Meander's margent green, Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; That likest thy Narcissus are? O, if thou have Hid them in some flow'ry cave, Tell me but where, Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere; So may'st thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies." Heptameter. COMUS.-Milton. "Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of sight." LOCKSLEY HALL. - Tennyson. "Sit not like a mourner, Brother! by the grave of that dear Past, Throw the Present! 'tis thy servant only when 'tis overcast, Give battle to the leaguéd world, if thou 'rt worthy, truly brave, Thou shalt make the hardest circumstance a helper or a slave, As when thunder wraps the setting sun, he struggles, glows with ire, Rifts the gloom with golden furrows, with a hundred bursts of fire, Melts the black and thunderous masses to a sphere of rosy light, Then on edge of glowing heaven smiles in triumph on the night." LIFE DRAMA. - Alexander Smith. Octameter. "Fear not! hopes no strength could warrant to the feeblest faith are given; Looking forward strains the eyesight, — looking upward opens ON A BAPTISM. Mrs. Charles. heaven." As before stated, this measure is usually divided, each verse making two of tetrameter. The chief faults which usually occur in the reading of poetry have been thus classified by Prof. Russell: Too rapid utterance, by which the effect of the verse is lost to the ear; this general hurry of the voice abridges the pauses, and sacrifices every characteristic beauty of the metre: A plain and dry articulation, which, though sufficiently distinct for meaning, withholds the appropriate tone of poetry, neglecting to accommodate the voice to emotion and rhythm. A mouthing and chanting tone, producing the effect of bombast and of mock solemnity. This error consists in carrying prolongation and swell to excess, and causing the style of reading or recitation to be that of extravagance and caricature, rather than of solemn emotion. A want of true time, appearing in the disproportion of syllables to each other, and to their places, as component parts of metrical feet, in the irregular and varying succession of the different parts of a line, as compared with each other, in the want of correctness and symmetry in the pauses, whether as compared with each other, or the average rate of utterance. A mechanical observance of the harmonic pauses, without regard to meaning. Literal and uniform reading according to the rhythm, without regard to emphasis. Let it be remembered then, that poetry should be read more slowly than prose, - with a moderate prolongation of vowel and liquid sounds, with a slight degree of musical utterance, in exact time, as prescribed by the emotion expressed in given passages, and by the nature of the verse. The utterance should indicate the metre, but should never render it prominent. SELECTIONS, DESIGNED FOR SINGLE RECITATIONS -NOT FOR READING IN CLASSES. EVELYN HOPE. Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead! Sit and watch by her side an hour. That is her book-shelf, this her bed; She plucked that piece of geranium flower, Little has yet been changed, I think : The shutters are shut, no light may pass Robert Browning. Save two long rays through the hinge's chink. Sixteen years old when she died! Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name; It was not her time to love; beside, Her life had many a hope and aim, Duties enough, and little cares, And now was quiet, now astir, Till God's hand beckoned unawares, And the sweet white brow is all of her. And our paths in the world diverged so wide, Each was nought to each, must I be told? No, indeed! for God above Is great to grant, as mighty to make, I claim you still, for my own love's sake! Delayed it may be for more lives yet, Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few: Much is to learn and much to forget Ere the time be come for taking you. But the time will come, at last it will, When, Evelyn Hope, what meant, I shall say, |