THIS DAY, COUNTRYMEN!

BY ROBERT LOWELL.

Cowards, slink away!

But who scorns to see the foe Deal our land all shame and woe, Must go forth to-day!

Crops are safe, afield!

Cripples and old men can reap;

Young, and strong, and bold must leap,

Other tools to wield.

Cast the daily trade!

Never may be bought or won,
After this great fight is done,

What this day is weighed.

Leave your true love's side!

Go! be fearless, true, and strong! Woman glories to belong Where she looks with pride.

True men hold our line;

Basely leave their true ranks thin, Waste and ruin will rush in Like the trampling swine.

Dare you be a man?

Now for home, and law, and right, Go, in God's name, to the fight! Forward to the van!

While counting beads of luscious corn
The dark-eyed harvest nun!
The old man with his snowy locks,

White as the winter's zone,

Bends on his knee and thanks our God
In reverential tone.

Children will leap and laugh and lie
Upon the greener grass,

And shade their sunnier eyes of love
While argosies do pass-

The argosies of mellow corn,

On rivers and on seas;

These are our glorious COAT OF ARMS-
We conquer wORLDS with these.

Nature herself doth take a smile

When unto her are born
(To feed her starving million men)
So many grains of corn.
The ill-"FED" serfs of Cotton King
Fall down in conscious shame,
And glorious pæans loudly sing
Unto the Rescuer's name.
All tongues, all nations, will be glad
When corn has come to reign,
To spread his banners o'er the earth
In PEACE and LOVE again!
And I, forsooth, this simple hymn

Give to my real KING;

May fortune shield both him and me
Beneath the Union wing.

-Baltimore American, April 10.

CORN.*

BY E. ROSS WHITE.

The golden banners of the corn
Will glad the earth again,
Attended by the morning dew
And the celestial rain!

And matron eyes will brighter grow
To see the bending corn
Stoop, like a band of worshippers,
To greet the rising morn!
The maiden's cheek will wear a hue
More healthy in the sun,

The patriotic author of this fine poem may be found in Bed $1, Hospital No. 4, Ward No. 1, in this city.-Louisville Journal, VOL. V.-POETRF 1

FOOTE.

A LAY OF ISLAND NO. TEN.

We all are anxious now to hear,
Amid the war's alarms,
That Captain Foote, at "Island Ten,"
Achieved a "feat of arms !"

But Foote, who won a pair of feats
Upon the Tennessee,

Says: "Sailors sail, or swim, or steam,
Foot-feats suit infantry!

"Now, give me but a troop of horse, Four-footed then I'll be,

And from my boats and horse-marines' The rebels quick shall flee!

JEFF DAVIS'S PRAYER.

BY CLARENCE BUTLER.

Bowed down with grievous cares of state, (For things weren't going very straight,) There sat that awful potentate

King Jeff, the great secesher; He looked exceedingly forlorn, Harassed and vexed, annoyed and worn; 'Twas plain his office didn't return Much profit or much pleasure.

Says Jeff (he thus soliloquized :) "This isn't quite as I surmised; It really cannot be disguised,

The thing is getting risky: Winchester, Donelson, Roanoke, Pea Ridge, Port Royal, Burnside's stroke At Newbern-by the Lord, I choke!" Jeff took a drink of whisky.

"McClellan, too, and Yankee Foote; Grant, Hunter, Halleck, Farragut, With that accurst Fremont to boot;"

(Right here he burst out swearing;
And then, half-mad and three parts drunk,
Down on his shaking knees he sunk,
And prayed like any frightened monk,
To ease his blank despairing.)

He prayed: "O mighty Lucifer!
Than whom of all that are or were
There is no spirit worthier

To be our lord and master;

O thou Original Secesh!
Please pity our poor quaking flesh,
And break this tightening Union mesh,
And stop this dire disaster!

"We trust we have not been remiss
In duty or in sacrifice;

We feel we have wrought thine abyss
Some services, good devil!

The hottest hell-fire marked our track
O'er the green land we have made black;
We think our hands have not been slack
In doing work of evil.

"Have we not drugged and drowsed the press, And held the Bible in duress? And, Satan, did we not suppress

The thinkers and the teachers; Close up the schools, starve out the brains, Lynch those attaint with loyal stains, Festoon the sacred cross with chains,

And gag the Lord Christ's preachers?

"O Prince of rebels! have we not
Almost eclipsed Iscariot,

And quite shamed Peter's little blot,
With treachery and lying?
Have we not hacked, and hewed, and burned,
And pillaged what the poor had earned;
Brought havoc on the rich, and spurned
The famished and the dying?

"So, being thine in word and deed, We trust we shall not vainly plead In this our time of frightful need And perilous reverses;

Therefore, sink every Federal boat,
Let Stanton be with palsy smote,
Make George McClellan cut his throat,
And blast Old Abe with curses!

"Then, Satan, whilst we give thee thanks,
Kill Shields, choke Halleck, poison Banks,
And spread through all the Yankee ranks
Terrific devastation!

Let loose the plagues and pestilence,
Stir up the Northern malcontents,
And drive the invading mudsills hence,
In utter consternation!

"By all the incense we have brought;
By all the ruin we have wrought;
By every woe and every clot

Of murder, grim and gory;

By every shriek and every wail

That makes the stunned heart blanch and pale,
Oh! let thy servants now prevail-

And thine shall be the glory!"

SAINT PAUL, April 14, 1862.

nest.

then a tremendous volley was poured into the rebel 'That's it! A good one!' he cried. They returned a perfect shower of grape and canister, tearing through and over us. Col. Robie's countenance was beaming, and turning to the men, he called out: 'Come on, my children, I'll die with you! Press on, my boys! Now is the time to show yourselves!' And as a rifled shell goes singing by his head, he cries in his joy: Ye gods! isn't this a handsome fight !'"

SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY, American correspondent of the London Herald, writes to that paper as follows Having found universal profanity at the North, and piety at the South, he adds: "One officer informed me that, in giving orders for the first volley, which took such tremendous effect, he addressed his men thus: "The Lord have mercy on their souls! but fire.'

A PRAYER FOR THE TIMES.

THE New-Orleans Picayune contains the following form of prayer, which was issued by the Episcopal bishop of the diocese:

"O Lord, our heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth, and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires, and governments; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these American States, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on thee; to thee they have appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which thou alone canst give; take them, therefore, heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause; and if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, oh! let the voice of thine own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop their weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle. Be thou present, O God of wisdom; and direct the councils of this honorable assembly! enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony, and peace may be effectIually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety prevail and flourish among thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and the vigor of their minds; shower down upon them and the millions they here represent such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them All this with everlasting glory in the world to come. we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, thy Son and our Saviour. Amen!"

characteristic letter:

HEADQUARTERS CAMP KELLY, January 24, 1862.

F. W. LANDER,

Brigadier-General U. S. V.

A LETTER from New-Orleans to the Mobile Register of March thirteenth, says that the Southern Commissioners are greatly dispirited at the reception which M. Thouvenel gave Mr. Slidell. But as Mr. Yancey observed in his speech, Slavery has made such a wall of partition between the South and Europe, that all hopes of a prompt recognition by England and France must be for the present abandoned. As to their want of cotton, I am of the opinion expressed by Mr. Semmes, of Louisiana, in the confederate Congress, and I have long since abandoned the idea that cotton is king.