NOONTIDE.

Erewhile I dream'd of cloister'd cells,

Of gloomy courts and matin bells,
And painted windows rare;

But common life's less real gleams

Shone warm on my monastic dreams,
And melted them in air.

My captive heart is alter'd now;
And, had I but one little bough
Of thy green alder-tree,

I would not live too long alone,
Or languish there for want of one

To share the nest with me!

REV. F. W. FABER, M.A.

NOONTIDE.

ENEATH a shivering canopy reclined,

aspen leaves that wave without a wind,

I love to lie, when lulling breezes stir
The spiry cones that tremble on the fir;
Or wander 'mid the dark-green fields of broom,
When peers in scatter'd tufts the yellow bloom;
Or trace the path with tangling furze o'errun,
When bursting seed-bells crackle in the sun,

THE BEAUTIES IN NATURE.

And pittering grasshoppers, confus'dly shrill,
Pipe giddily along the glowing hill:
Sweet grasshopper, who lov'st at noon to lie
Serenely in the green-ribb'd clover's eye,
To sun thy filmy wings and emerald vest,
Unseen thy form, and undisturb'd thy rest;
Oft have I listening mused the sultry day,
And wonder'd what thy chirping song might say,
When nought was heard along the blossom'd lea,
To join thy music, save the listless bee.

DR. LEYDEN.

THE BEAUTIES IN NATURE.

IN JUNE.

WHILE I bask'd amid the hay;

Suck'd from the clover-flowers the honey; traced
The shining-coated insects in the grass,

Threading their beautiful labyrinth, or the bee,

Eagerly rifling the fallen flowers, to catch

Their fragrance ere the hot sun drink it up;
Listen'd the little chorus of the gnats,

And flies innumerous wheeling round and round

In the warm sunbeam. Now, stretch'd at length,

THE BEAUTIES IN NATURE.

I watch'd the many-colour'd birds that sail'd

With various flight in the ethereal air;

The lark with quivering wing mounting aloft

Till my strain'd eye had lost him, though even then