THE JOURNEY OF LIFE.

BENEATH the waning moon I walk at night,
And muse on human life-for all around
Are dim uncertain shapes that cheat the sight,

And pitfalls lurk in shade along the ground,

And broken gleams of brightness, here and there, Glance through, and leave unwarmed the death-like air.

The trampled earth returns a sound of fear-
A hollow sound, as if I walked on tombs;
And lights, that tell of cheerful homes, appear
Far off, and die like hope amid the glooms.
A mournful wind across the landscape flies,
And the wide atmosphere is full of sighs.

And I, with faltering footsteps, journey on,
Watching the stars that roll the hours away,
Till the faint light that guides me now is gone,
And, like another life, the glorious day
Shall open o'er me from the empyreal height,

With warmth, and certainty, and boundless light.

TRANSLATIONS.

U

TRANSLATIONS.

VERSION OF A FRAGMENT OF SIMONIDES.

THE night winds howled—the billows dashed

Against the tossing chest ;

And Danaë to her broken heart

Her slumbering infant pressed.

"My little child"—in tears she said—

"To wake and weep is mine,

But thou canst sleep-thou dost not know

Thy mother's lot, and thine.

"The moon is up, the moonbeams smile

They tremble on the main;

But dark, within my floating cell,

To me they smile in vain.

"Thy folded mantle wraps thee warm,
Thy clustering locks are dry,
Thou dost not hear the shrieking gust,
Nor breakers booming high.

"As o'er thy sweet unconscious face
A mournful watch I keep,

I think, didst thou but know thy fate,
How thou wouldst also weep.

"Yet, dear one, sleep, and sleep, ye winds That vex the restless brine

When shall these eyes, my babe, be sealed As peacefully as thine!"