And lo! where floating through a glory, sings
The lark, alone amidst a crystal sky!

Lo! where the darkness of his buoyant wings,
Against a soft and rosy cloud on high,
Trembles with melody!

While the far-echoing solitudes rejoice
To the rich laugh of music in that voice.

But purer light than of the early sun
Is on you cast, O mountains of the earth!
And for your dwellers nobler joy is won
Than the sweet echoes of the skylark's mirth,
By this glad morning's birth!

And gifts more precious by its breath are shed Than music on the breeze, dew on the violet's head.

Gifts for the soul, from whose illumined eye,
O'er nature's face, the colouring glory flows;
Gifts from the fount of immortality,

Which, fill'd with balm, unknown to human woes,
Lay hush'd in dark repose,

Till thou, bright day-spring! mad'st its waves our

own,

By thine unsealing of the burial-stone.

Sing, then, with all your choral strains, ye hills!
And let a full victorious tone be given,

By rock and cavern, to the wind which fills
Your urn-like depths with sound! The tomb is riven,
The radiant gate of Heaven

Unfolded-and the stern, dark shadow cast
By death's o'ersweeping wing, from the earth's bosom
past.

And you, ye graves! upon whose turf I stand,
Girt with the slumber of the hamlet's dead,
Time with a soft and reconciling hand

The covering mantle of bright moss hath spread
O'er every narrow bed:

But not by time, and not by nature sown
Was the celestial seed, whence round you peace hath

grown.

Christ hath arisen! oh! not one cherish'd head
Hath, 'midst the flowery sods, been pillow'd here
Without a hope, (howe'er the heart hath bled
In its vain yearnings o'er the unconscious bier.)
A hope, upspringing clear

From those majestic tidings of the morn,
Which lit the living way to all of woman born.

Thou hast wept mournfully, O human love!
E'en on this greensward; night hath heard thy cry,
Heart-stricken one! thy precious dust above,
Night, and the hills, which sent forth no reply
Unto thine agony!

But He who wept like thee, thy Lord, thy guide, Christ hath arisen, O love! thy tears shall all be dried.

Dark must have been the gushing of those tears,
Heavy the unsleeping phantom of the tomb
On thine impassion'd soul, in elder years
When, burden'd with the mystery of its doom,
Mortality's thick gloom

Hung o'er the sunny world, and with the breath

Of the triumphant rose came blending thoughts of death.

By thee, sad Love, and by thy sister, Fear,
Then, was the ideal robe of beauty wrought
To veil that haunting shadow, still too near,
Still ruling secretly the conqueror's thought,

And where the board was fraught With wine and myrtles in the summer-bower, Felt, e'en when disavow'd, a presence and a power.

But that dark night is closed: and o'er the dead, Here, where the gleamy primrose tufts have blown, And where the mountain heath a couch has spread, And, settling oft on some grey-letter'd stone,

The red-breast warbles lone;

And the wild bee's deep, drowsy murmurs pass And a low thrill of harp-strings through the grass.

Here, 'midst the chambers of the Christian's sleep,
We o'er death's gulf may look with trusting eye,
For hope sits, dove-like, on the gloomy deep,
And the green hills wherein these valleys lie
Seem all one sanctuary

Of holiest thought—nor needs their fresh bright sod,
Urn, wreath or shrine, for tombs all dedicate to God.

Christ hath arisen! -O mountain peaks! attest,
Witness, resounding glen and torrent-wave,
The immortal courage in the human breast
Sprung from that victory-tell how oft the brave
To camp 'midst rock and cave,

Nerved by those words, their struggling faith have borne,

Planting the cross on high above the clouds of morn.

The Alps have heard sweet hymnings for to-day — Ay, and wild sounds of sterner, deeper tone,

Have thrill'd their pines, when those that knelt to pray Rose up to arm! the pure, high snows have known A colouring not their own,

But from true hearts which by that crimson stain
Gave token of a trust that call'd no suffering vain.

Those days are past-the mountains wear no more
The solemn splendour of the martyr's blood,
And may that awful record, as of yore,
Never again be known to field or flood!

E'en though the faithful stood,

A noble army, in the exulting sight

Of earth and heaven, which blest their battle for the right!

But many a martyrdom by hearts unshaken

Is yet borne silently in homes obscure;

And many a bitter cup is meekly taken;

And, for the strength whereby the just and pure Thus steadfastly endure,

Glory to Him whose victory won that dower,
Him, from whose rising stream'd that robe of spirit
power.

Glory to Him! Hope to the suffering breast!
Light to the nations! He hath roll'd away
The mists, which, gathering into deathlike rest,
Between the soul and Heaven's calm ether lay—
His love hath made it day

With those that sat in darkness.-Earth and sea!
Lift up glad strains for man by truth divine made free!

I SAW him at his sport erewhile,
The bright exulting boy,

Like summer's lightning came the smile
Of his young spirit's joy;

A flash that wheresoe'er it broke,
To life undreamt-of beauty woke.

His fair locks waved in sunny play,
By a clear fountain's side,
Where jewel-colour'd pebbles lay
Beneath the shallow tide;

And pearly spray at times would meet
The glancing of his fairy feet.

He twined him wreaths of all spring-flowers,
Which drank that streamlet's dew;

He flung them o'er the wave in showers,
Till, gazing, scarce I knew

Which seem'd more pure, or bright, or wild,
The singing fount or laughing child.

To look on all that joy and bloom
Made earth one festal scene,