30. "Tis midnight's holy hour-and silence now 31. Ere the evening lamps are lighted, And, like phantoms grim and tall, Shadows from the fitful fireside Dance upon the parlour wall. G. D. PRENTICE. H. W. LONGFELLOW. 32. Night's starry host gather'd in brightness high, MRS. C. H. W. ESLING. 33. The sun now rests upon the mountain tops. 34. The hour of melancholy, mirth, and love. CARLOS WILCOX. MRS. BROOKS. 35. The busy world was still, the solemn moon P. B. ELDER. 36. The king of day had dipp'd his weary head J. T. WATSON. 1. DEATH-GRAVE. Death is a fearful thing: The wearied and most loathed earthly life, To what we fear of death! SHAKSPEARE. 176 DEATH-GRAVE. 2. Is it not better to die willingly, Than linger till the glass be all outrun ? 3. Imperious Cæsar, dead and turn'd to clay, 4. Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. 5. Can storied urn, or animated bust 6. SPENSER. SHAKSPEARE. SHAKSPEARE. Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Death, grim death Will fold me in his leaden arms, and press 7. The sceptred king, the burthen'd slave, GRAY'S Elegy. CONGREVE. 8. Death is the crown of life: Were death denied, poor man would live in vain. YOUNG'S Night Thoughts. 9. The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave, The deep, damp vault, the darkness, and the worm! YOUNG'S Night Thoughts. 10. A death-bed's a detector of the heart: Through life's grimace that mistress of the scene; YOUNG'S Night Thoughts. 11. O death, all eloquent! you only prove What dust we dote on, when 't is man we love. POPE'S Eloisa. 12. Death, when unmask'd, shows us a friendly face, 13. The prince, who kept the world in awe, GOLDSMITH. GAY's Fables. 14. There shall the yew her sable branches spread, 15. Leaves have their times to fall, GAY's Dione. And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, And stars to set - but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death! MRS. HEMANS. 16. Let him who crawls, enamour'd of decay, BYRON'S Corsair. 17. How peaceful and how powerful is the grave! BYRON. 178 DEATH-GRAVE. 18. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 19. And dull the film along his dim eye grew. BYRON. BYRON'S Lara. 20. Yes, this was once ambition's airy hall; BYRON'S Childe Harold. 21. Death shuns the wretch who fain the blow would meet. BYRON'S Don Juan. 22. At times, both wish'd for and implor'd, At times sought with self-pointed sword, And welcome in no shape. BYRON'S Mazeppa. 23. What shall he be ere night?-Perchance a thing O'er which the raven flaps his funeral wing! 24. Oh God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing! BYRON'S Corsair. BYRON'S Prisoner of Chillon. 25. How sweetly could I lay my head 26. O, grief beyond all other griefs, when fate MOORE. MOORE'S Lalla Rookh. 27. Like one who draws the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. W. C. BRYANT. 28. Yet why should death be link'd with fear? A single breath-a low-drawn sighCan break the ties that bind us here, And waft the spirit to the sky. MRS. A. B. WELBY. 29. There lay the warrior and the son of song, Had mov'd the nations with resistless sway. MRS. NORTON's Dream. 30. Ah! it is sad when one thus link'd departs! When Death, that mighty sev'rer of true hearts, MRS. NORTON's Dream. 31. Oh! what a shadow o'er the heart is flung, When peals the requiem of the lov'd and young! W. G. CLARK. 32. Oh, there is a sweetness in beauty's close, Like the perfume scenting the wither'd rose ! 33. His few surviving comrades saw And the red field was won; They saw in death his eyelids close Like flowers at set of sun. J. G. PERCIVAL. FITZ-GREEN HALLECK. 34. All at rest now-all dust!-wave flows on wave, Pause for a while, and murmur, "All must die!" The New Timon. |