Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Fame's wreaths I covet not, nor will I dare Build up the rhyme with academic lore; To gain those sorrowed hearts where lurketh Care, And cheer them with glad melodies of yore:— Such be my aim—and make them sweetly smile Around the happy hearth, with Grief defied the while! Awake! my Lyre, and sound the high emprise That seeks to bind mankind into one whole; Be thine that happiness to realise, Which will spring up, when once there's soul with soul Linked in one brotherhood—be thine to sing That jubilee of Love, which peace to earth shall bring. Oh, touch man's callous heart with love for man, Let Sympathy flow from thy chords amain; And as the whole of mankind thou may'st scan, Let Music's raptures snap the galling chain That bars the poor from forth the pillared dome, Into those wretched huts so oft miscalled a home. Into those hearts where Poverty still reigns, Let all thine influences now diffuse— Soothe their sad, drooping souls—assuage their pains, And sing of Hope; for Hope is heavenly news To those whose all is in the world above: Fulfil thy mission thus, and thou'lt awaken love. Caroluhg merrily on the wing, Blythe herald of the leafy Spring; Oh! why so early soar on high Far in the orient, azure sky? With dewy breast, why take your flight Ere Morn dispels the gloom of Night, And wake the warblers of the grove With that melodious song of love? Why shun the brake, the woody shade, The hoary thorn and verdant glade; Where linnet and the blackbird sing The cheerful symphonies of Spring? Thou lov'st to seek the fleecy cloud, While thee, the downy vapours shroud; Thy song I hear, but gaze in vain For thee o'er the cerulean plain. At early dawn I love to hear Thy notes descend so rich and clear, As music of se...