ページの画像
PDF
ePub

POEMS

ADDED BY THE AUTHOR IN SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS OF HIS WORKS.

ON THE DEATH OF

MRS. THROCKMORTON'S BULLFINCH.

YE Nymphs, if e'er your eyes were red
With tears o'er hapless favourites shed,
Oh share Maria's grief!
Her favourite, even in his cage
(What will not hunger's cruel rage ?)
Assassined by a thief.

Where Rhenus strays his vines among
The egg was laid from which he sprung;
And though by nature mute,
Or only with a whistle blessed,
Well-taught, he all the sounds expressed
Of flageolet or flute.

The honours of his ebon poll
Were brighter than the sleekest mole,
His bosom of the hue

With which Aurora decks the skies,
When piping winds shall soon arise
To sweep away the dew.

Above, below, in all the house,
Dire foe alike of bird and mouse,

No cat had leave to dwell;
And Bully's cage supported stood
On props of smoothest-shaven wood,
Large built and latticed well.

Well latticed, but the grate, alas !
Not rough with wire of steel or brass,
For Bully's plumage sake,
But smooth with wands from Ouse's side,
With which, when neatly peeled and
dried,

The swains their baskets make.

Night veiled the pole; all seemed secure; When, led by instinct sharp and sure, Subsistence to provide,

A beast forth sallied on the scout, Long backed, long tailed, with whiskered snout,

And badger-coloured hide.

He, entering at the study door,
Its ample area 'gan explore;

And something in the wind Conjectured, sniffing round and round, Better than all the books he found, Food chiefly for the mind.

Just then, by adverse fate impressed,
A dream disturbed poor Bully's rest;
In sleep he seemed to view
A rat fast clinging to the cage,
And screaming at the sad presage,
Awoke and found it true.

For, aided both by ear and scent,
Right to his mark the monster went,
Ah, Muse! forbear to speak
Minute the horrors that ensued;
His teeth were strong, the cage was
wood,--

He left poor Bully's beak.

Oh, had he made that too his prey!
That beak, whence issued many a lay
Of such mellifluous tone,
Might have repaid him well, I wote,
For silencing so sweet a throat,

Fast stuck within his own.

Maria weeps, the Muses mourn ;—
So, when by Bacchanalians torn,

On Thracian Hebrus' side
The tree-enchanter Orpheus fell,
His head alone remained to tell
The cruel death he died.

THE ROSE.

THE rose had been washed, just washed in a shower,
Which Mary to Anna conveyed,

The plentiful moisture encumbered the flower,
And weighed down its beautiful head.

The cup was all filled, and the leaves were all wet,
And it seemed, to a fanciful view,

To weep for the buds it had left with regret
On the flourishing bush where it grew.

I hastily seized it, unfit as it was

For a nosegay, so dripping and drowned;
And swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas!
I snapped it-it fell to the ground.

66

And such," I exclaimed, "is the pitiless part
Some act by the delicate mind,

Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart
Already to sorrow resigned!

"This elegant rose, had I shaken it less,

Might have bloomed with its owner awhile;
And the tear that is wiped with a little address
May be followed perhaps by a smile."

ODE TO APOLLO.

ON AN INK-GLASS ALMOST DRIED IN THE SUN.

PATRON of all those luckless brains

That, to the wrong side leaning,
Indite much metre with much pains,
And little or no meaning:

Ah why, since oceans, rivers, streams,
That water all the nations,
Pay tribute to thy glorious beams,
In constant exhalations;

Why, stooping from the noon of day,
Too covetous of drink,
Apollo, hast thou stolen away
A poet's drop of ink?

Upborne into the viewless air,
It floats a vapour now,

Impelled through regions dense and rare
By all the winds that blow.

Ordained, perhaps, ere summer flies,
Combined with millions more,
To form an Iris in the skies,
Though black and foul before.

Illustrious drop! and happy then
Beyond the happiest lot,
Of all that ever passed my pen,
So soon to be forgot!

Phoebus, if such be thy design,
To place it in thy bow,

Give wit, that what is left may shine
With equal grace below.

[blocks in formation]

I SHALL not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no;

'Tis clear that they were always able

To hold discourse, at least in fable;

And even the child who knows no better

Than to interpret by the letter

A story of a cock and bull,

Must have a most uncommon skull.

It chanced then on a winter's day,

But warm and bright and calm as May,
The birds, conceiving a design

To forestall sweet St. Valentine,

In many an orchard, copse, and grove,
Assembled on affairs of love,

And with much twitter and much chatter

Began to agitate the matter.

At length a Bullfinch, who could boast
More years and wisdom than the most,
Entreated, opening wide his beak,
A moment's liberty to speak;
And, silence publicly enjoined,
Delivered briefly thus his mind :

* It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philosopher, that all fables which ascribe reason and speech to animals should be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of decepBut what child was ever deceived by them, or can be, against the evidence of his senses?

tion.

66

'My friends! be cautious how ye treat The subject upon which we meet;

I fear we shall have winter yet."

A Finch, whose tongue knew no control, With golden wing and satin poll,

A last year's bird, who ne'er had tried
What marriage means, thus pert replied:
"Methinks the gentleman," quoth she,
"Opposite in the apple tree,

By his good will would keep us single
Till yonder heaven and earth shall mingle;
Or (which is likelier to befall)
Till death exterminate us all.

I marry without more ado;

My dear Dick Redcap, what say you?"

Dick heard, and tweedling, ogling, bridling, Turning short round, strutting, and sidling, Attested, glad, his approbation

Of an immediate conjugation.

Their sentiments so well expressed
Influenced mightily the rest;

All paired, and each pair built a nest.

But though the birds were thus in haste,

The leaves came on not quite so fast,
And Destiny, that sometimes bears
An aspect stern on man's affairs,
Not altogether smiled on theirs.
The wind, of late breathed gently forth,
Now shifted east, and east by north;
Bare trees and shrubs but ill, you know,
Could shelter them from rain or snow :
Stepping into their nests, they paddled,
Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled :
Soon every father-bird and mother

Grew quarrelsome, and pecked each other,
Parted without the least regret,

Except that they had ever met,

And learnt in future to be wiser
Than to neglect a good adviser.

MORAL.

Misses! the tale that I relate
This lesson seems to carry—
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.

« 前へ次へ »