The "Northern Star" Is set afar! Set in the Baltic Sea: And the waves have spread The sandy bed That holds my Love from me. --UNKNOWN. THE FIRST SWALLOW The gorse is yellow on the heath; The banks of speedwell flowers are gay; The oaks are budding, and beneath, The hawthorn soon will bear the wreath, The silver wreath of May. The welcome guest of settled spring, The swallow, too, is come at last Just at sunset, when thrushes sing, I saw her dash with rapid wing, And hail'd her as she past. Come, summer visitant, attach To my reed roof your nest of clay, And let my ear your music catch, Low twittering underneath the thatch, At the gray dawn of day. --CHARLOTTE SMITH. BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh ho! sing, heigh ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then heigh ho, the holly! This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember'd not. Heigh ho! sing, heigh ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then heigh ho, the holly! This life is most jolly. --WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear. Heap'd in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread. The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. The wind-flower and the violet, they perish'd long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchid died amid the summer glow; But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen.