William Robert Spencer, a noted English poet and wit, was born in 1770, and died in 1834. Among his best known pieces, which were published in a collection of his poems in 1811, were “Beth Gelert,” and “Too Late I Stayed.”
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannot live;
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.
“Evening,”—John Keble.
John Keble, a celebrated English religious poet, was born at Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 1792, and died at Bournemouth, Hampshire, in 1866. His fame rests on the renowned work, “The Christian Year,” which he published anonymously in 1872.
Reproof on her lip, but a smile in her eye.
“Rory O’More,”—Samuel Lover.
Samuel Lover, a famous Irish novelist and song-writer, was born at Dublin, in 1797, and died July 6, 1868. He wrote: “Legends and Stories of Ireland,” “Songs and Ballads,” including, “The Low-Backed Car,” “Widow Machree,” “The Angel’s Whisper,” and “The Four-Leaved Shamrock.” Also: “Handy Andy, an Irish Tale,” “Treasure Trove,” “Rory O’More, a National Romance,” “Metrical Tales and Other Poems,” and edited a collection of “The Lyrics of Ireland.”
On this I ponder
Where’er I wander,
And thus grow fonder,
Sweet Cork of thee,—
With thy bells of Shandon,
That sound so grand on
The pleasant waters
Of the River Lee.
“The Bells of Shandon,”—Father Prout (Francis O’Mahony).
Francis O’Mahony (“Father Prout”), a noted Irish journalist and poet, was born in Cork, about 1804, and died in Paris, in 1866. He published “Reliques of Father Prout,” “Facts and Figures from Italy,” etc.