m thy bands to arise?
They leave us, deplore as it wills us,--our store,
Our strength at the core, and our vigour of mind;
Remembrance forsakes us, distraction o'ertakes us,
Every love that awakes us, we leave it behind.
Thou spoiler of grace, that changest the face
To hasten its race on the route to the tomb,
To whom nothing is dear, unaffection'd the ear,
Emotion is sere, and expression is dumb;
Of spirit how void, thy passions how cloy'd,
Thy pith how destroy'd, and thy pleasure how gone!
To the pang of thy cries not an echo replies,
Even sympathy dies--and thy helper is none.
We see thee how stripp'd of each bloom that equipp'd
Thy flourish, till nipp'd the winter thy rose;
Till the spoiler made bare the scalp of the hair,
And the ivory[128] tare from its sockets' repose.
Thy skinny, thy cold, thy visageless mould,
Its disgust is untold, and its surface is dim;
What a signal of wrack is the wrinkle's dull track,
And the bend of the back, and the limp of the limb!
Thou leper of fear--thou niggard of cheer--
Where glory is dear, shall thy welcome be found?
Thou contempt of the brave--oh, rather the grave,
Than to pine as the slave that thy fetters have bound.
Like the dusk of the day is thy colour of gray,
Thou foe of the lay, and thou phantom of gloom;
Thou bane of delight--when thy shivering plight,
And thy grizzle of white,[129] and thy crippleness, come
To beg at the door; ah, woe for the poor,
And the greeting unsure that grudges their bread;
All unwelcome they call--from the hut to the hall
The confession of all is, "_'Tis time he were dead_!"

The picturesque portion of the description here terminates. With respect
to the moral and religious application, it is but just to the poet to
say, that before the close he appeals in pathetic terms to the young,
warning them not to boast of their strength, or to abuse it; and that he
concludes his lay with the sentiment, that whatever may be the ills of
"age," there are worse that await an unrepenting death, and a suffering
eternity.

[127] Alluding to the plagues.

[128] The teeth.

[129] _Gaelic_--Matted, rough, gray beard.

NORMAN MACLEOD;

OR, TORMAID BAN.

Single-speech Hamilton may be said to have had his _marrow_ in a
Highland bard, nearly his contemporary, whose one effort was att