and'ring schoolmates.
Yet their impress e'er must linger,
Linger on till time shall sever
All the links this earth hath given,
All the tender links of feeling.
Alexander Bruce, the stranger,
Feasted well his eyes so faithful,
On the scenes long since familiar,
On the playground of his childhood.
He was one of many others,
Who have swelled the honored columns.
He returned with heart o'erflowing,
To the spot he fondly cherished,
And with pleasurable sadness
He now gazed upon the changes.
Change was wrought on all about him,
Change was wrought on all within him,
Yet the walls beloved were standing,
'Mid the wreck of worlds beyond them,
Bearing witness to her children,
Standing monuments of witness.
And John Bruce, the great mechanic,
Was the brother of the stranger;
Was another noted scion
Of this noble house of learning.
To his genius of invention
Is the river world indebted
For the cutting of the sawyers,
Of the treach'rous snags and sawyers,
That were wont to plunge the steamer,
Boldly ploughing through the waters,
Into labyrinths of danger.

Long the line of brave descendants,
Long the line of mental giants,
From this aged Alma Mater,
From this crumbling hall of science,
The Academy of Garrard.

CANTO IV.
1812-1820.
SOLDIERS.

But the changing cycle moved on,
With the waxing, waning moonlight.

'Twas when European nations
Fell to quarreling and fighting
Over maritime dissensions,
That James Madison, the ruler
Of this glorious republic,
Felt the tread of foreign despots
On his loved and native country,
On the soil of peace and freedom,
And was driven to defend it.
For, these strange marauding parties
Ventured far from their dominion,
From their rightful sphere of labor,
From their proper place of warfare.
When a public proclamation
Called the people to the conflict,
Called the brave and hardy people
To unfurl the starry banner,
Mighty men of valor rose up,
At the cry, "To arms! To battle!"
For the seaports of the Union
Were blockaded by Great Britain,
By our alien mother country,
By the hostile British Islands.
Many battles, hot and bloody,
Many sieges and repulses,
Many victories and losses,
Stained the youthful nation's annals.
First at Queenstown, an