The land is no longer in view,

The clouds have begun to frown; But with a stout vessel and crew, We'll say, "Let the storm come down!" And the song of our hearts shall be, While the winds and the waters rave, A home on the rolling sea! A life on the ocean wave!

EPES SARGENT.

NIGHT AT SEA.

HE lovely purple of the noon's bestowing
Has vanished from the waters, where it
flung

A royal color, such as gems are throwing
Tyrian or regal garniture among.
'Tis night, and overhead the sky is gleaming,
Through the slight vapor trembles each dim star;
I turn away-my heart is sadly dreaming

Of scenes they do not light, of scenes afar.
My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me, as I think of you?

By each dark wave around the vessel sweeping,
Farther am I from old dear friends removed;
Till the lone vigil that I now am keeping,

I did not know how much you were beloved.
How many acts of kindness little heeded,

Kind looks, kind words, rise half reproachful now! Hurried and anxious, my vexed life has speeded, And memory wears a soft accusing brow, My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me, as I think of you? The very stars are strangers, as I catch them Athwart the shadowy sails that swell above; I cannot hope that other eyes will watch them At the same moment with a mutual love. They shine not there, as here they now are shining; The very hours are changed.-Ah, do you sleep? O'er each home pillow midnight is decliningMay some kind dream at least my image keep! My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me, as I think of you?

Yesterday has a charm, to-day could never
Fling o'er the mind, which knows not till it parts
How it turns back with tenderest endeavor

To fix the past within the heart of hearts.
Absence is full of memory, it teaches
The value of all old familiar things;
The strengthener of affection, while it reaches
O'er the dark parting, with an angel's wings.
My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me, as I think of you?
The world, with one vast element omitted-
Man's own especial element, the earth;
Yet, o'er the waters is his rule transmitted

By that great knowledge whence has power its birth.

How oft on some strange loveliness while gazing
Have I wished for you-beautiful as new,
The purple waves like some wild army raising
Their snowy banners as the ship cuts through.
My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me, as I think of you? The sword-fish and the shark pursue their slaughters,

War universal reigns these depths along.
Like some new island on the ocean springing,
Floats on the surface some gigantic whale,
From its vast head a silver fountain flinging,
Bright as the fountain in a fairy tale.
My friends, my absent friends!

I read such fairy legends while with you,
Light is amid the gloomy canvas spreading,
The moon is whitening the dusky sails,
From the thick bank of clouds she masters, shedding
The softest influence that o'er night prevails.
Pale is she like a young queen pale with splendor,
Haunted with passionate thoughts too fond, too deep;
The very glory that she wears is tender,

The very eyes that watch her beauty fain would weep.

My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me, as I think of you?

Sunshine is ever cheerful, when the morning
Wakens the world with cloud-dispelling eyes;
The spirits mount to glad endeavor, scorning
What toil upon a path so sunny lies.
Sunshine and hope are comrades, and their weather
Calls into life an energy like spring's;
But memory and moonlight go together,
Reflected in the light that either brings.
My friends, my absent friends!

Do you think of me then? I think of you.
The busy deck is hushed, no sounds are waking
But the watch pacing silently and slow;
The waves against the sides incessant breaking,
And rope and canvas swaying to and fro.
The topmast-sail, it seems like some dim pinnacle
Cresting a shadowy tower amid the air;

While red and fitful gleams come from the binnacle,
The only light on board to guide us-where?
My friends, my absent friends!

Far from my native land, and far from you.
On one side of the ship, the moonbeam's skimmer
In luminous vibrations sweeps the sea,
But where the shadow falls, a strange, pale glimmer
Seems, glow-worm like, amid the waves to be,
All that the spirit keeps of thought and feeling,
Takes visionary hues from such an hour;
But while some phantasy is o'er me stealing,
I start remembrance has a keener power:
My friends! my absent friends!

From the fair dream I start to think of you.

A dusk line in the moonlight-I discover
What all day long vainly I sought to catch;
Or is it but the varying clouds that hover

Thick in the air, to mock the eyes that watch?
No; well the sailor knows each speck, appearing,
Upon the tossing waves, the far-off strand;
To that dark line our eager ship is steering.
Her voyage done-to morrow we shall land.

$

LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON.

HILDA, SPINNING.

PINNING, spinning, by the sea,
All the night!

On a stormy, rock-ribbed shore,
Where the north-winds downward pour
And the tempests fiercely sweep
From the mountains to the deep,
Hilda spins beside the sea,
All the night!

Spinning, at her lonely window,
By the sea!

With her candle burning clear,
Every night of all the year,

And her sweet voice crooning low
Quaint old songs of love and woe,
Spins she at her lonely window
By the sea.

On a bitter night in March,
Long ago,

Hilda, very young and fair,

With a crown of golden hair,
Watched the tempest raging wild,
Watched the roaring sea-and smiled-
Through that woful night in March,
Long ago!

What, though all the winds were out
In their might?

Richard's boat was tried and true;
Staunch and brave his hardy crew;
Strongest he to do or dare.

- Said she, breathing forth a prayer:
"He is safe, though winds are out
In their might!"

But, at length, the morning dawned
Still and clear;

Calm, in azure splendor, lay
All the waters of the bay;
And the ocean's angry moans

Sank to solemn undertones,

As, at last, the morning dawned
Still and clear!

With her waves of golden hair
Floating free,

Hilda ran along the shore,
Gazing off the waters o'er ;

And the fishermen replied:
"He will come in with the tide,"
As they saw her golden hair
Floating free!

Ah! he came in with the tide,
Came alone!

Tossed upon the shining sands,
Ghastly face and clutching hands,
Seaweed tangled in his hair,
Bruised and torn his forehead fair-
Thus he came in with the tide,
All alone!

Hilda watched beside her dead
Day and night.

Of those hours of mortal woe
Human ken may never know;
She was silent, and his ear
Kept the secret, close and dear,
Of her watch beside her dead,
Day and night!

What she promised in the darkness,
Who can tell?

But upon that rock-ribbed shore
Burns a beacon evermore;

And, beside it, all the night,

Hilda guards the lonely light,

Though what vowed she in the darkness None may tell !

THE AMERICAN FLAG.

HEN Freedom from her mountain height,

Unfurled her standard to
the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there!
She mingled with its gorgeous
dyes

The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial
white

With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land!
Majestic monarch of the cloud!

Who rear st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumping loud,
And see the lightning lances driven,

When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven-
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given

To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle-stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high!
When speaks the signal-trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn,
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabres rise and fall

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,

And cowering foes shall shrink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.

When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea
Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given !
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us! With freedom's soil beneath our feet, And freedom's banner streaming o'er us! JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER.

In 1814, when the British fleet was at the mouth of the Potomac River, and intended to attack Baltimore, Mr. Key and Mr. Skinner were sent in a vessel with a flag of truce to obtain the release of some prisoners the English had taken in their expedition againt Washington. They did not succeed, and were sold that they would be detained till after the attack had been made on Baltimore. Accordingly, they went in their own vessel, strongly guarded, with the British fleet, and when they came within sight of Fort McHenry, a short distance below the city, they could see the American flag flying on the ramparts. As the day closed in, the bombardment of the fort commenced, and Mr. Key and Mr. Skinner remained on deck all night, watching with deep anxiety every shell that was fired. While the bombardment continued, it was sufficient proof that the fort had not surrendered. It suddenly ceased some time before day; but as they had no communicatian with any of the enemy's ships, they did not know whether the fort had surrendered and their homes and friends were in danger, or the attack upon it had been abandoned. They paced the deck the rest of the night in painful suspense, watching with intense' anxiety for the return of day. At length the light came, and they saw that "our flag was still there," and soon they were informed that the attack had failed. In the fervor of the moment, Mr. Key took an old letter from his pocket, and on its back wrote the most of this celebrated song, finishing it as soon as he reached Baltimore. He showed it to his friend Judge Nicholson, who was so pleased with it that he placed it at once in the hands of the printer, and in an hour after it was all over the city, and hailed with enthusiasm, and took its place at once as a national song. Thus, this patriotic, impassioned ode became forever associated with the "Stars and Stripes."

SAY, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed in the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;