Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

The Devil gat next to Westminster,

[ocr errors]

And he turn'd to "the room of the Commons; But he heard, as he purposed to enter in there, That" the Lords" had received a summons; And he thought, as a " quondam aristocrat,"

He might peep at the peers, though to hear them were flat;

And he walk'd up the house so like one of our own, That they say that he stood pretty near the throne.

He saw the Lord Liverpool seemingly wise,

The Lord Westmoreland certainly silly,
And Johnny of Norfolk a man of some size
And Chatham, so like his friend Billy;
And he saw the tears in Lord Eldon's eyes,
Because the Catholics would not rise,

In spite of his prayers and his prophecies;
And he heard which set Satan himself a staring-
A certain Chief Justice say something like swearing.
And the Devil was shock'd—and quoth he, “I must
For I find we have much better manners below: [go,
If thus he harangues when he passes my border,
I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order."

WINDSOR POETICS.

Lines composed on the occasion of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent being seen standing between the coffins of Henry VIII, and Charles L, in the royal vault at Windsor.

FAMED for contemptuous breach of sacred ties,
By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies;

Between them stands another sceptred thing —
It moves, it reigns — in all but name, a king :

Charles to his people, Henry to his wife,

In him the double tyrant starts to life:

Justice and death have mix'd their dust in vain,
Each royal vampire wakes to life again.

Ah, what can tombs avail!—since these disgorge The blood and dust of both — to mould a George.

STANZAS FOR MUSIC.

[“ I SPEAK NOT, I TRACE NOT," &c.] (1)

I SPEAK not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name, There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame : But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impart

The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart.

Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace Were those hours can their joy or their bitterness

cease?

[chain,We repent-we abjure-we will break from our We will part, we will fly to—unite it again!

-

(1) [“ Thou hast asked me for a song, and I enclose you an experiment, which has cost me something more than trouble, and is, therefore, less likely to be worth your taking any in your proposed setting. Now, if it be so, throw it into the fire without phrase."- Lord B. to Mr. Moore. May 10. 1814.]

[ocr errors]

Oh! thine be the gladness, and mine be the guilt! Forgive me, adored one! forsake, if thou wilt; But the heart which is thine shall expire undebased, And man shall not break it—whatever thou mayst.

And stern to the haughty, but humble to thee,
This soul, in its bitterest blackness, shall be ;

And our days seem as swift, and our moments more sweet,

With thee by my side, than with worlds at our feet.

One sigh of thy sorrow, one look of thy love,
Shall turn me or fix, shall reward or reprove;
And the heartless may wonder at all I resign -
Thy lip shall reply, not to them, but to mine.

May, 1814.

ADDRESS INTENDED TO BE RECITED AT
THE CALEDONIAN MEETING.

WHO hath not glow'd above the page where fame
Hath fix'd high Caledon's unconquer'd name;
The mountain-land which spurn'd the Roman chain
And baffled back the fiery-crested Dane,

Whose bright claymore and hardihood of hand
No foe could tame

no tyrant could command? That race is gone-but still their children breathe, And glory crowns them with redoubled wreath : O'er Gael and Saxon mingling banners shine,

And, England! add their stubborn strength to thine

[ocr errors]

The blood which flow'd with Wallace flows as free,
But now 'tis only shed for fame and thee!
Oh! pass not by the northern veteran's claim,
But give support—the world hath given him fame!

The humbler ranks, the lowly brave, who bled
While cheerly following where the mighty led—
Who sleep beneath the undistinguish'd sod
Where happier comrades in their triumph trod,
To us bequeath-tis all their fate allows
The sireless offspring and the lonely spouse:
She on high Albyn's dusky hills may raise
The tearful eye in melancholy gaze,
Or view, while shadowy auguries disclose
The Highland seer's anticipated woes,
The bleeding phantom of each martial form
Dim in the cloud, or darkling in the storm;
While sad, she chants the solitary song,
The soft lament for him who tarries long-
For him, whose distant relics vainly crave

The Coronach's wild requiem to the brave!

'Tis Heaven-not man-must charm away
the woe
Which bursts when Nature's feelings newly flow;
Yet tenderness and time may rob the tear
Of half its bitterness for one so dear;
A nation's gratitude perchance may spread
A thornless pillow for the widow'd head;
May lighten well her heart's maternal care,
And wean from penury the soldier's heir.

May, 1814.

FRAGMENT OF AN EPISTLE TO THOMAS

MOORE.

"WHAT say I?". not a syllable further in prose; I'm your man "of all measures," dear Tom, — so, here goes!

Here goes, for a swim on the stream of old Time, On those buoyant supporters, the bladders of rhyme. If our weight breaks them down, and we sink in the

flood,

We are smother'd, at least, in respectable mud. Where the Divers of Bathos lie drown'd in a heap, And Southey's last Pæan has pillow'd his sleep:That "Felo de se" who, half drunk with his malmsey, Walk'd out of his depth and was lost in a calm sea, Singing "Glory to God" in a spick and span stanza,. The like (since Tom Sternhold was choked) never

man saw.

The papers have told you, no doubt, of the fusses, The fêtes, and the gapings to get at these Russes, Of his Majesty's suite, up from coachman to Het

man,

[man. And what dignity decks the flat face of the great I saw him, last week, at two balls and a party,For a prince, his demeanour was rather too hearty. You know, we are used to quite different graces,

*

The Czar's look, I own, was much brighter and brisker, But then he is sadly deficient in whisker;

« FöregåendeFortsätt »