The angels, not so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me. Yes! that was the reason (as all men know) In this kingdom by the sea, That the wind came out of the cloud by night, But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of many far wiser than we; And neither the angels in heaven above, For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes And so, all the night-tide I lie down by the side In her tomb by the sounding sea. Edgar Allan Poe. SANDALPHON. Have you read in the Talmud of old, How, erect, at the outermost gates With his feet on the ladder of light, Alone in the desert at night? The Angels of Wind and of Fire With the song's irresistible stress; But serene in the rapturous throng, With eyes unimpassioned and slow, To sounds that ascend from below; From the spirits on earth that adore, And he gathers the prayers as he stands, It is but a legend, I know, A fable, a phantom, a show, Of the ancient Rabbinical lore; Yet the old mediæval tradition, The beautiful, strange superstition, But haunts me and holds me the more. When I look from my window at night, All throbbing and panting with stars, And the legend, I feel, is a part Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. WHEN THE KYE COME HAME. Come, all ye jolly shepherds, That whistle through the glen! I'll tell ye o' a secret That courtiers dinna ken: What is the greatest bliss That the tongue o' man can name? 'Tis to woo a bonnie lassie When the kye come hame. When the kye come hame, When the kye come hame. 'Tis not beneath the burgonet, There the blackbird bigs his nest, There he pours his melting ditty, When the kye come hame. When the blewart bears a pearl, Then the lavrock, frae the blue lift, When the kye come hame. See yonder pawky shepherd, When the kye come hame. When the little wee bit heart That the heart can hardly frame! Wi' a bonnie, bonnie lassie, When the kye come hame. Then since all Nature joins James Hogg. GRAND, SUBLIME AND REVERENTIAL STYLES. OROTUND VOICE. The Orotund voice, or the voice that is used in the expression of impassioned selections, needs now to be specially considered, as we are about to treat of various classes of composition that depend upon that voice for their appropriate interpretation. What is the Orotund voice, and wherein does it differ from the natural or conversational voice? These questions are pertinent to the present discussion. The Natural and Orotund voices are manufactured in the same way, and differ only in their intensity and volume of sound. If a drum-head be tapped by the finger, a feeble report is heard; but if you beat the drum with great force, a very much louder report follows each blow, and a consequent resonance is heard inside as the sound passes from one head of the drum to the other. So with these voices. In the case of the Natural voice, the sound made in the glottis, as we talk, is not sufficiently loud to produce any resonance, except a slight one in the head; but when by the action of the abdominal muscles, the air in the lungs is thrown into the glottis with great force, a loud explosion of sound is heard, and a consequent resonance takes place in the cavities of the body, especially in the chest; hence the term, chest tone. The most direct answer that we can make to the inquiry, what is the Orotund voice and wherein does it differ from the Natural voice, is this: The Orotund voice is that full, deep and resonant sound heard in all impassioned sublimity, oratory and fierce emotion, and it differs specifically from the Natural voice in that its depth, fullness and roundness arise chiefly from resonance in the cavities of the body. The use of the Orotund voice in impassioned styles is so common a thing in ordinary life that the mention of a single |