Home Lyrics | Page 5

tobogganing, snow-shoes, and skate,?In sliding along to the sleigh-bells' blithe sound,?O'er rivers, and meadows, and snow-mantled ground.
Then hurrah for the Palace, the ice king, the snow;?Around them let mirth and hilarity flow,?Hurrah for our Governor, country, and main,?And God bless our loved Queen, and long may she reign.

THE FABLE OF THE SPHYNX
Facts gathered from a lecture by George Chainey, of Boston, U.S.
Oh! the image and the fable of the Sphynx!
What lessons do they teach,?What sermons do they preach?Of the riddle and the mystery of life!
'Tis a union of brute force and love sublime.
A female face and head?To a lioness form are wed,?Embodying strength and purity divine.
The lioness, a symbol of wild might;
The peerless head and face,?And bust of female grace,?Are types of pure affection and delight.
In each one lies this dual element:
Leonine cruelty,?That well might master be,?If not o'er-ruled by strict fidelity.
And the all-powerful conquering light of love,?Which, blessing those who give?No less than who receive,?Makes bliss on earth, as God's laws clearly prove.
In crowning thus the Sphynx with love's sweet worth,
We have for us the old,?Sweet gospel ever told?That love in peerless might should rule the world.
Shall then our path o'er life's uncertain way
Be led by a true heart,?Acting pure love's kind part,?Or by fierce guidance of a beast of prey?
To what heroic heights mortals may climb,
Humanity to serve,?With loving heart and nerve,?Are seen in Buddha, and in Florence Nightingale.
And to what depths of leonine lust and crime
A cruel man may go,?Scattering fear, ruin, woe,?Witness fierce Nero and Caligula!
In each these possible heights and depths betide,
All, then, may freely choose,?None can the choice refuse,?Between the higher and the lower guide.
Where selfishness and unchecked passions stray
As ruling motives sole,?To reach a tinselled goal,?There crouches the ferocious beast of prey.
Shall life to us be crowned with blessings sure,
As noblest woman's life,?Harmonious 'mid all strife,?Or blurred with bestial appetites impure?
Surely the answer should be prompt and plain,
That we, at any cost,?Will not be so far lost?As to permit the beast o'er love to reign.
The purport of the dual female form,
Shrines the grand truth, that Might?Should bravely nourish Right,?Life's checkered pathway sweetly to adorn.
'Tis said the Sphynx in ancient Afric' stood
Upon the great highway,?Beckoning all to stay,?Who passed, to guess life's riddle if they could,
Which if they failed in, she devoured them there,
As she believed that they?Who would not learn life's way,?Were not entitled its best joys to share.
But Oedipus, a wiser man than most
Passing, the riddle guessed,?That gave the Sphynx sweet rest,?And forthwith she descended from her post.
Knowing her secret, once devined, would be
Learned by all thinkers, then?Proclaimed by them to men,?Her mission o'er, she vanished 'neath the sea.
The axiom of "Man, know thyself" is worth
The pains it costs to learn,?E'en through long labours stern,?Since 'tis the key that opes rich joys on earth.
Pure knowledge entereth through struggles fierce,
And only to the few?Who sternly seek the true,?Is given to solve the mystery of the Sphynx.

UP, SISTERS, MORN IS BREAKING.
Up, sisters! morn is breaking?Over the mountains grey,?As, borne on silvered pinions,?She ushers in the day.
She comes, and at her bidding?The empress of the night,?And starry hosts of heaven,?Veil their supernal light.
Scarce has their empire ended,?O'er the awakening earth,?When morning, fresh and joyous,?With dewdrops clad comes forth.
And now the great sun's chariot,?Led by the rosy hours,?Sweeps through the heavens proudly,?And o'er fond nature towers.
The grand, majestic sun-god,?Pavilioned is on high,?And throned in golden splendour?He reigns o'er earth and sky.
Dispersing gloom and sadness,?Giving to all new birth,?Dispensing light and gladness,?O'er the rejoicing earth.
Up, then, fair sisters, early?His call from sleep obey,?His first sweet healthful teachings?Will sanctify the day.
Inhale his breath delicious,?Its freshness health bestows;?It tints the cheeks with colours?Of Persia's lovely rose.
Up, then, at nature's bidding,?Over the hills away,?With freshened pulses glowing,?To hail the King of Day.

OH! I LOVE THE FREE AIR OF THE GRAND MOUNTAIN HEIGHT.
Oh! I love the free air of the grand mountain height,?In its freshness new vigour I find,?It makes life's warm pulses throb high with delight,?And stimulates body and mind.
Its freedom inspires happy thought and desire,?And the heart cannot fail to rejoice,?As it makes the glad spirit receptive and quick?To translate nature's eloquent voice.
The sun-illumed firmament royally decked?In pearly-tinged cloudlets of grey,?Framed in exquisite clearness of deep tender blue,?Fit throne for the Monarch of day!
The city below lies in tranquil repose,?Betraying no symptom of life,?Ah! who could suppose at this distance that it?Could be moved by dissension and strife!
For it lies like an innocent, slumbering babe?In the fold of a fond mother's breast,?Between the fair river that kisses its feet,?And the mountain in well-guarded rest.
Then o'er the St. Lawrence and spanning its flow,?Is Stephenson's triumph of skill,?The grand bridge that laughs at a kingdom of ice,?Which essays its stern ramparts to kill.
And there like an emerald shrined in mid stream,?Is St. Helen's bright islet of grace,?Whose trees on the river's