What tale do the roaring ocean, And the night-wind, bleak and wild, As they beat at the crazy casement, Tell to that little child? And why do the roaring ocean, And the night-wind, wild and bleak, As they beat at the heart of the mother, Drive the colour from her cheek?" Mr Longfellow understands how to _leave off_--how to treat a subject so that all is really said, yet the ear is left listening for more. "By the Fireside" is a series, of course, of mere domestic sketches. The subjects, however, do not always bear any distinct reference or relation to this title. That from which we feel most disposed to quote is written on some "Sand of the Desert in an Hour-Glass." It has been always a favourite mode of composition to let some present object carry the imagination, by links of associated thought, whithersoever it pleased. This sort of reverie is natural and pleasing, but must not be often indulged in. It is too easy; and we soon discover that any topic thus treated becomes endless, and will lead us, if we please, over half the world. At length it becomes indifferent where we start from. Without witchcraft, one may ride on any broomstick into Norway. But the present poem, we think, is a very allowable specimen of this mode of composition. The poet surveys this sand of the desert, now confined within an hour-glass; he thinks how many centuries it may have blown about in Arabia, what feet may have trodden on it--perhaps the feet of Moses, perhaps of the pilgrims to Mecca; then he continues-- "These have passed over it, or may have passed! Now in this crystal tower, Imprisoned by some curious hand at last, It counts the passing hour. And as I gaze, these narrow walls expand; Before my dreamy eye Stretches the desert, with its shifting sand, Its unimpeded sky. And, borne aloft by the sustaining blast, This little golden thread Dilates into a column high and vast, A form of fear and dread. And onward and across the setting sun, Across the boundless plain, The column and its broader shadow run, Till thought pursues in vain. The vision vanishes! These walls again Shut out the lurid sun, Shut out the hot immeasurable plain; The half-hour's sand is run!"