Poetical Souvenir.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE following beautiful verses from the pen of Professor Longfellow being peculiarly apropos, are selected as introductory to the valuable original compositions which enrich the pages of this volume. Professor Longfellow is deservedly one of the most appreciated of modern minstrels.

COME read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of time.
For like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavour,
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,

Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

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