But say, what strains, what language can express
The thousand pangs, which tore the lover's breast?
Upon her breathless corse himself he threw,
And to her clay- cold lips, with trembling haste,
Ten thousand kisses gave. He strove to speak;
Nor words he found: he claspt her in his arms;
He sigh'd, he swoon'd, look'd and died away.

up,

One grave contains this hapless, faithful pair; And still the Cane-isles tell their matchless love!

4) A WEST-INDIA PROSPECT, WHEN CROP IS FINISH'D ").

See, there, what mills, like giants raise their arms,
To quell the speeding gale! what smoke ascends
From every boiling house! What structures rise,
Neat though not lofty, pervious to the breeze;
With galleries, porches, or piazzas grac'd!
Nor not delightful are those reed-built huts,
On yonder hill, that front the rising sun;
With plantanes, with banana's bosom'd deep,
That flutter in the wind: where frolic goats,
But the young negroes, while their swarthy sires,
With ardent gladness wield the bill; 'and hark,
The crop is finish'd, how they rend the sky!

Nor, beauteous only shows the cultured soil,
From this cool station. No less charts the eye
That wild interminable waste of waves:

While on the horizon's farthest verge are seen
Islands of different shape, and different size:

While sail-clad ships, with their sweet produce fraught,
Swell on the straining sight; while near yon rock,
On which ten thousand wings with ceaseless clang
Their airies build, a water spout descends,

And shakes mid ocean; and while there below,
That town, embe vered in the different shade
Of tamarinds, panspans **), and papaws ***) o'er which

*) Sugar Cane, Book III. v. 526 — 576. **) Panspans, Nome eines Westindischen Baums. ***) papaws. This singular tree, whose fruits surround its summit under the branches and leaves like a necklace, grows quicker than almost any other in the WestIndies. The botanical name is Papaya.

.

A double Iris throws her painted arch,

Shows commerce toiling in each crowded street,
And each throng'd street with limpid currents lav'd.

What though no bird of song, here charms the sense

With her wild minstrelsy; far, far beyond,

The unnatural quavers of Hesperian throats!
Though the chaste poet of the vernal woods,
That shuns rude folly's din, delight not here
The listening eve; and though no herald- lark
Here leave his couch, high-towering to descry
The approach of dawn, and hail her with his songt
Yet not anmusical the tinkling lapse

On yon cool argent rill, which Phoebus gilds
With his first orient rays; yet musical,

Those buxom airs that through the plantanes play.
And tear with wantonness their leafy scrolls;
Yet not rnmusical the waves hoarse sound,
That dashes, sullen, on the distant shore;
Yet musical those little insects hum,

That hover round us, and to reason's ear,
Deep, moral truths convey; while every beam
Flings on them transient tints, which vary when

They wave their purple plumes; yet musical

The love-lorn cooing of the mountain-dove,

That woos to pleasing thoughtfulness the soul;

But chief the breeze, that murmurs through yon canes,
Enchants the ear with tunable delight.

MICHABL

BRU C E.

ICHAEL BRUCE wurde den 27sten März 1746 zù Kinneswood in Kinrossshire geboren, wo sein Vater Weber war. Seine schwächliche Leibesbeschaffenheit, und die Leichtigkeit mit der er alles fafste, was in der Dorfschule des Orts gelehrt wurde, veranlafste wahrscheinlich seine Ältern, ihn zum a eistlichen Stande zu erziehen. Sie schickten ihn daher, nachdem er einige Schulen in den benachbarten Städten besucht hatte, 1762 nach Edinburgh, wo er mit dem emsigsten Fleifse und gutem Erfolg verschiedene Wissenschaften studirie, und

sich vorzügliche Kenntnisse im Griechischen und Lateinischen erwarb. Sein Lieblingsfach blieben indossen die schō. nen Redekünste. Er las mit Begierde die besten Dichter, und drang um só leichter in den Geist derselben ein, da er selbst dichterische Talente besafs. Diese hatte man bereits auf der Schule an ihm wahrgenommen, und ihn zum Anbau derselben ermuntert; vorzüglich war dies von zweien Männern, Namens David Arnot, welcher ein kleines Gut am See Lochleven besafs, und David Pearson, geschehen. In Edinburgh knüpfte Bruce Bekanntschaft mit dem Dichter Logan; beide Jünglinge wurden, wegen Ähnlichkeit der Neigungen, bald innige Freunde. Im März des Jahres 1765

um eben

schrieb er eine Elegy on the Death of Mr. Ewen, eines würdigen Geistlichen. In diesem Jahre versah er während des Sommers den Unterricht in der Schule zu Gairny-Bridge bei Kinross, und hier war es, wo er seine schöne Monody to the Memory of William Arnot, des hoffnungsvollen Sohnes seines Freundes, schrieb; wahrscheinlich dichtete er diese Zeit seinen Alexis, ein Hirtengedicht. Im Anfang der Vorlesungen, zwischen den Jahren 1765 und 1766, ging er zum Studio der Gottesgelahrtheit über. Im Sommer des Jahres 1766 vertauschte er die Schule zu Gairny-Bridge mit ei ner andern zu Forest-Mill, bei Alloa in Clackmannanshire, wo er indessen nicht zufrieden gelebt zu haben scheint. Hier schrieb er sein Gedicht Lochleven. Seine Constitution hatte schon seit einiger Zeit durch das rauhe Clima, die Beschwerden seines Amis ́und die kärgliche Lebensart, zu welcher ́er durch Dürftigkeit genöthigt war, sehr gelitten; er verfiel nun im Herbst dieses Jahres in eine Auszehrung, gab deshalb seine Beschäftigungen zu Forrest-Mill auf, und kehrte nach seinem Geburtsorte zurück. Von hier aus sandse er ein Schreiben an seinen Freund Pearson, in welchem sich die schöne Allegorie über das menschliche Leben befindet. Im Frühling des folgenden Jahres schrieb er noch die Elegie auf seinen herannahenden Tod, welches seine letzte Arbeit war, starb den 6ten Julius 1767 im 21sten Jahre seines Alters Bald nach seinem Tode wurden seine Gedichte von seinem Freunde Logan unter dem Titel herausgegeben: Poems on several occasions by Michael Bruce, Edinburgh 1770, 12. Man findet sie hiernächst auch, mit verschiedenen neuen Stücken bereichert, und mit einer Biographie des Verfassers versehen, im 11ten Theile der Andersonschen Sammlung. Aufser den

Er

bereits angeführten, enthält diese Sammlung noch verschiedene andere Gedichte von Bruce, unter denen folgende die vorzüglichsten sind: The eagle, crow and shepherd, a fable: Pastoral Song; Sir James the Ross, an historical Ballad; the last Day; Anacreontic to a Wasp; The Mousiad; Òde to a Fountain; Danish Odes; Eclogue in the Manner of Ossian; Lochleven no more; Philocles und einige andere. Wir theilen unsern Lesern die rührende und melodische Elegy written in Spring mit, die schon durch die Umstände, unter welchen der unglückliche Jüngling dieselbe schrieb, Interesse erweckt. Sein vollendetsies Stück ist indessen Lochleven, ein beschreibendes Gedicht, in reimloser Versart. Anderson charakterisirt in der vorhin angeführten Biographie unsern Dichter also: As a poet he is characterized by elegance, simplicity and tenderness, more than sublimity, invention or enthusiasm. He has more judgment and feeling, than genius or imagination. He is an elegant and pleasing, though not a very animated or original writer. His compositions are the product of a tender fancy, a cultivated taste, and a benevolent mind'; and are distinguished by an amiable delicacy, and simplicity of sentiment, and a graceful plainness of expression, free from the affectation of an inflated diction, and a profusion of imagery, so common in juvenile productions. His thoughts are often striking, sometimes new and always just; and his versification, though not exquisitely polished, is commonly easy and harmonious. Die diesen Umrissen gesetzten engen Gränzen erlauben uns nicht, den Lesern das Urtheil dieses Kunstrichters über einzelne poetische Stücke unsers Dichters mitzutheilen.

ELEGY

WRITTEN I N SPRING.

'Tis past: the iron north has spent its rage;

Stern winter now resigns the length'ning day; The stormy howlings of the winds assuage

And warm o'er ether western breezes play.
Of genial heat and cheerful light the source,

From southern climes, beneath another sky,
The suu, returning, wheels his golden course;
Before his beams all noxious vapours fly.
Far to the north grim winter draws his train'
To his own clime, to Zembla's frozen shore;

Where, thron'd on ice, he holds eternal reign,

Where whirlwinds madden, and where tempests roar.
Loos'd from the bands of frost, the verdant ground
Again puts on her robe of cheerful green,
Again puts forth her flow'rs; and all around,

Smiling, the cheerful face of spring is seen.
Behold! the trees new deck their wither'd boughs;
Their ample leaves the hospitable plane,
The taper elm, and lofty ash disclose;

The blooming hawthorn variegates the scene.
The lily of the vale, of flow'rs the queen,

Puts on the robe she neither sew'd nor spun: The birds on ground, or on the branches green, Hop to and fro, and glitter in the sun.

Soon as o'er eastern hills the morning peers,

From her low nest the tufted lark up springs; And, cheerful singing, up the air she steers;

Still high she mounts, still loud and sweet she sings On the green furze, cloth'd o'er with golden blooms, That fill the air with fragrance all around, The linnet sits, and tricks his glossy plumes,

While o'er the wild his broken notes resound.

While the sun journeys down the western sky,

Along the greensward, mark'd with Roman mound, Beneath the blithesome shepherd's watchful eye,

The cheerful lambkins dance and frisk around. Now is the time for those, who wisdom love, Who love to walk in virtue's flow'ry road, Along the lovely paths of spring to rove,

And follow Nature up to Nature's God.

Thus Zoroaster studied Nature's laws,

Thus Socrates, the wisest of mankind;

Thus Heav'n-taught Plato tras'd th' almighty cause,
And left the wond'ring multitude behind.

Thus Ashley gather'd academic bays;

Thus gentle Thomson, as the seasons roll,
Taught them to sing the great Creator's praise,
And bear their poet's name from pole to pole.