I turn to thee, and listen with fix'd eyes, With dire necessity to read the papers, Judicial slaps that would have stung Saint Paul, Costs, pityings, warnings, wits, and worse than all, (O for a dose of Thelwall or of poppy!) The fiend, the punctual fiend, that bawls for copy! From the rank slaves that gather round his hand. Be poor in purse, and law will soon undo thee; Be poor in soul, and self-contempt will rue thee. I yield, I yield.-Once more I turn to you, Harsh politics! And once more bid adieu To the soft dreaming of the Muse's bowers, Their sun-streak'd fruits and fairy-painted flowers. Farewell, for gentler times, ye laurel'd shades; Farewell, ye sparkling brooks and haunted glades, Where the trim shapes, that bathe in moonlight eves, Glance through the light,and whisper in the leaves, While every bough seems nodding with a sprite, And every air seems hushing the delight. Farewell, farewell, dear Muse! and all thy plea-. [leisure. He conquers ease who would be crown'd with sure! LEIGH HUNT. A SCHOOL ECLOGUE. EDWARD. HIST, Henry! hist! what means that air so gay? pains, Are cleansed from garden mould and inky stains; Sed tamen, ille Deus qui sit, da Tityre-nobis. HENRY. John, faithful John, is with the horses come, EDWARD. *Thrice happy who such welcome tidings greet! Thrice happy who reviews his native seat! For him the matron spreads her candied hoard, And early strawberries crown the smiling board; For him crush'd gooseberries with rich cream combine, And bending boughs their fragrant fruit resign: Custards and syllabubs his taste invite; Sports fill the day, and feasts prolong the night. + Think not I envy, I admire thy fate. Yet, ah! what different tasks thy comrades wait! Some in the grammar's thorny maze to toil, Some with rude strokes the snowy paper soil, Some o'er barbaric lines in maps to roam, Far from their mother tongue and dear-loved home. Harsh names of uncouth sound their memories load, And oft their shoulders feel the' unpleasant goad! WILLIAM. ; Doubt not our turn will come some future time * Fortunate senex, híc inter flumina nota. + Non equidem invideo, miror magis. At nos hinc alii sitientes ibimus Afros, Pars Scythiam, et rapidum Cretæ veniemus Oaxem. HENRY. Then spout alternate, I consent to hear, WILLIAM. A ship these hands have built, in every part EDWARD. For me at home the careful housewifes make, Alternis dicetis. WILLIAM. Well does the gift thy liquorish palate suit, EDWARD. I scorn a tell tale, or could declare How, leave unask'd, you sought the neighbouring fair; Then home by moonlight spurr'd your jaded steed, And scarce return'd before the hour of bed. Think how thy trembling heart had felt affright, Had not our master supped abroad that night. WILLIAM. On the sinooth whitewash'd ceiling near thy bed, Mix'd with thy own, is Anna's cipher read; From wreaths of dusky smoke the letters flow; Whose hand the waving candle held, I know. Fines and jobations shall thy soul appal, Whene'er our mistress spies the sullied wall. EDWARD. Unconn'd her lesson once, in idle mood, * Non ego, te vidi, Damonis. |