Short Poems

Censured by her who stands above
The Sapphic Muse in song and love,
" For minding what such people do,"
I turn in confidence to you.
Now, Forster, did you never stop
At orange-peel or turnip-top,
To kick them from your path, and then
Complacently walk on agen?

Now from the chamber all are gone
Who gazed and wept o'er Wellington,
Derby and Dis do all they can
To emulate so great a man.
If neither can be quite so great,
Resolved is each to LIE in state .

Loved , when my love from all but thee had flown,
Come near me; seat thee on this level stone;
And, ere thou lookest o'er the churchyard wall,
To catch, as once we did, yon waterfall,
Look a brief moment on the turf between,
And see a tomb thou never yet hast seen.
My spirit will be sooth'd to hear once more
Good-bye as gently spoken as before.

She was so beautiful, had God but died
For her, and none beside,
Reeling with holy joy from east to west
Earth would have sunk down blest:
And, burning with bright zeal, the buoyant Sun
Cried thro' his worlds well done!

Landor . Kenyon, I've written for your delectation,
A short Imaginary Conversation.
Kenyon . Landor, I much rejoice at the report;
But only keep your promise — be it short.

On love, on grief, on every human thing,
Time sprinkles Lethe's water with his wing.

Where are the blooms of many dyes
That used in every path to rise?
Whither are gone the lighter hours?
What leave they? . . I can only send
My wisest, loveliest, latest friend
These weather-worn and formless flowers.

A CURSE upon the kind of old
Who would have kidnapt all the Muses!
Whether to barter them for gold
Or keep them for his proper uses.
Lysis! aware he meant them ill,
Birds they became, and flew away . .
Thy Muse alone continues still
A titmouse to this very day.

GOD 's laws declare,
Thou shalt not swear
By aught in heaven above or earth below.
Upon my honour! Melville cries . .
He swears, and lies . .
Does Melville then break God's commandment? No.

Death ! we don't halt then! march I must,
Mortally as I hate the dust.
I should have been in rare high glee
To make an April-fool of thee.