Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 5, November 1852

Various

Various

Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 5, November 1852

THE DREAMS OF YOUTH

POETRY BY CHARLES MACKAY

ACCOMPANIMENTS BY SIR H. R. BISHOP

Air “Pray, Goody, PLEASE TO MODERATE.”

Oh! youth’s fond dreams, like eve ’ning skies,

Are tinged with colours bright,

Their cloud-built halls and turrets rise

In lines of ling’ ring light;

Airy, fairy,

In the beam they glow,

As if they’d last

Thro’ ev’ry blast

That angry fate might blow;

But Time wears on with stealthy pace

And robes of solemn grey.

And in the shadow of her face

The glories fade away.

But not in vain the splendours die,

For worlds before unseen

Rise on the forehead of the sky

Unchanging and serene.

Gleaming, – streaming,

Thro’ the dark they shew

Their lustrous forms

Above the storms

That rend our earth below.

So pass the visions of our youth

In Time’s advancing shade;

Yet ever more the stars of Truth

Shine brighter when they fade.

The Cottage Door

Those little curly-pated elves,

Blest in each other and themselves,

Right pleasant ’tis to see

Glancing like sunbeams in and out

The lowly porch, and round about

The ancient household tree.

And pleasant ’tis to greet the smile

Of her who rules this domicile

With firm but gentle sway;

To hear her busy step and tone,

Which tell of household cares begun

That end but with the day.

’Tis pleasant, too, to stroll around

The tiny plot of garden ground,

Where all in gleaming row

Sweet primroses, the spring’s delight,

And double daisies, red and white,

And yellow wall-flowers grow.

What if such homely view as this

Awaken not the high-wrought bliss

Which loftier scenes impart?

To better feelings sure it leads,

If but to kindly thoughts and deeds

It prompt the feeling heart.

RIVERS

—

BY THOMAS MILNER, M. A

—

Rivers constitute an important part of the aqueous portion of the globe; with the great lines of water, with streams and rivulets, they form a numerous family, of which lakes, springs, or the meltings of ice and snow, upon the summits of high mountain chains, are the parents. The Shannon has its source in a lake; the Rhone in a glacier; and the Abyssinian branch of the Nile in a confluence of fountains. The country where some of the mightiest rivers of the globe have their rise has not yet been sufficiently explored to render their true source ascertainable. The origin of others is doubtful, owing to a number of rills presenting equal claims to be considered as the river-head; but many are clearly referable to a single spring, the current of which is speedily swelled by tributary waters, ultimately flowing in broad and deep channels to the sea. Inglis, who wandered on foot through many lands, had a fancy, which he generally indulged, to visit the sources of rivers, when the chances of his journey threw him in their vicinity. Such a pilgrimage will often repay the traveler, by the scenes of picturesque and secluded beauty into which it leads him; and even when the primal fount is insignificant in itself, and the surrounding landscape exhibits the tamest features, there is a reward in the associations that are instantly wakened up – the thought of a humble and modest commencement issuing in a long and victorious career – of the tiny rill, proceeding, by gradual advances, to become an ample stream, fertilizing by its exudations and rolling on to meet the tides of the ocean, bearing the merchandise of cities upon its bosom. The Duddon, one of the most picturesque of the English rivers, oozes up through a bed of moss near the top of Wrynose Fell, a desolate solitude, yet remarkable for its huge masses of protruding crag, and the varied and vivid colors of the mosses watered by the stream. Petrarch’s letters and verses have given celebrity to the source of the Sorques – the spring of Vaucleuse, which bursts in an imposing manner out of a cavern, and forms at once a copious torrent. The Scama