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: ELIZABETH ALIEN. Mrss Allen was born at Craftsbury, Vt., in 1791. At that period the I own. was mostly a wilderness. Attendance at a district school of four months was the extent of her means for acquiring an education, save by self-culture and social intercourse. At the age of sixteen a fever deprived her of hearing. From this time her chief amusement was in prose and poetic composition. In 1832 she published a small volume of poetry, from which we give a brief extract. Though trammeled by deafness, and lacking the polish of education, her poetic mind glimmers through her essays. Affectionate in disposition, hers was a life of virtue and piety. She died in her native town, aged fifty-five years. MY NATIVE MOUNTAINS. Let cities boast their mimic arts, Their mossy domes, their glittering spires, And smoky atmosphere, and men With restless eye and drooping mind With anxious care distraught, while from Those giddy scenes remote we tax The powers of intellect or beck The muse, as skipping light from dell To dell she dips in crystal stream Her golden cup, and spacious meets To untaught wight a draught as rich As e'er gushed forth Castalia's fount. Sweet wakes the morn! I see its auburn locks, now changed They glow with burnished gold, and now Appears above yon orient height Her dazzling eye ; creation leaps With joy. The milk-maid seeks the fold, While to the field the ploughman hies, The student to his walk, and pleased, The invalid peeps forth and smiles. But lo! The breakfast horn with its shrill note Peals through the vales, and from the hills Echoes its sweet and bold response. My native mountains much are ye Revered ; in your formation grand, Your varied shapes and gushing streams, I see the hand Omnipotent; Yon glassy lake,... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.