O, where is the ardour of Shiel and O’Connell, The heart-burning eloquence poured in the cause? Would it stimulate Parnell, impassion O’Donnell, If of hunger they felt for a moment the claws? For small is the gain and the glory ensuing From the tortuous path that their feet are pursuing, And slow the advance unto Ireland accruing, From forcing the coach-wheels of Albion to pause. ‘Sad is our fate,’ cries the famishing peasant; ‘The wild bird is left to its home on the tree, And corn is full lavishly flung to the pheasant, But no roof and no food for my children and me. O, harder our fate than the horrors of fiction! When thrust by the merciless laws of eviction From the home that is held by the heart’s predilection, We are forced o’er the bare breast of Erin to flee. Erin, our country, as, weak and heart-broken, We wander half-starved over mountain and shore, And search for a remnant of hope, or a token That life may be glad to our spirits once more; Can we trust that the hearths, now forlorn and forsaken, To welfare shall warm and to laughter awaken, And the dust from the wings of thy glory be shaken To the future reëcho of Erin-go-bragh! Sweet solace it were to the heart of the dying, That throbs his last pulse out on pitiless ground, Could he know that the land upon which he was lying Would smile into gladness, with plenty abound; And the trials and straights of despair and starvation Through which he was fighting should end in salvation To happier sons of a new generation, Who will sing the old anthem of Erin-go-bragh.’ HYPOPHOSPHATE (MISS E. CHAMBERLAYNE.) ――――:o:―――― HOHENLINDEN. An imitation of Hohenlinden, written by Mr. F. B. Doveton, was given on page 28. It was descriptive of the Tay Bridge disaster, which happened in December, 1879. The subject was chosen for a prize competition in _The World_, the model selected being Campbell’s Hohenlinden, and the following poems appeared in that journal on January 21, 1880:―― THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER. On Balgay when the sun was low, Pale gleamed the distant Grampian snow, And dark and muddy was the flow Through Strath-Tay ebbing rapidly. But Balgay saw another sight, When rose the wind at fall of night, And distant gleams of splendour light The darkness of her scenery. Mid light and darkness fast arrayed The Storm-King’s hosts commenced their raid, And every furious blast essayed To join the dreadful revelry. Then shook the bridge with storm-gusts riven, Then rushed the cloud-wrack tempest-driven, And nearer ’neath the vault of heaven, Out flashed the train lights ruddily.