Short Poems

Some Men created for destruction come
Into the World & make the World their home
[Friend Caiaphas is one do what he can]
Be they as Vile & Base as Eer they can
[Hell] Theyll still be called " The Worlds" honest man

S[tothard] in Childhood on the Nursery floor
Was extreme Old & most extremely poor
He is grown old & rich & what he will
He is extreme old & extreme poor still

Can there be any thing more mean
More Malice in disguise
Than Praise a Man for doing [that] what
[Which he] That Man does most despise
[This] Reynolds Lectures [plainly shew] Exactly so
When he praises Michael Angelo

[Look Flaxman & Stothard do] old acquaintance well renew
Prospero had One Caliban & I have Two

Hail,1 guest, and enter freely! All you see
Is, for your momentary visit, yours; and we
Who welcome you, are but the guests of God

And know not our departure.1 These verses and the next are proposed inscriptions for Stevenson's new house, " Skerryvore, " presented to him and his wife by his father.

Lo, in thy green enclosure here,
Let not the ugly or the old appear,
Divine Priapus; but with leaping tread
The schoolboy, and the golden head
Of the slim filly twelve years old —
Let these to enter and to steal be bold!

Good old ale, mild or pale,
India ale and Burton,
Give me a vat to swim a whale.

When far along the verdant dale
The far-off spire appears,
The mind reverts to Burton's ale
And dreams of different beers.

The moon is sinking — the tempestuous weather
Grows worse, the squalls disputing our advance;
And as the feet fall well and true together
In the last moonlight, see! the standards glance!

One hour, one moment, and that light for ever.
Quite so.

Go, little book, and wish to all
Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall,
A bin of wine, a spice of wit,
A house with lawns enclosing it,
A living river by the door,
A nightingale in the sycamore!

1. GOOD NIGHT
When the bright lamp is carried in,
The sunless hours again begin;
O'er all without, in field and lane,
The haunted night returns again.