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GLEANINGS

FROM

A WRITING-DESK.

I SAW THEE-TIME'S RUDE HAND HAD DIMMED.

"I'll not leave thee, thou lone one."-MOORE.

I.

I SAW thee-Time's rude hand had dimmed the lines that Beauty traced;

And Fortune's frowns and blighting Grief thy rosy prime

effaced;

But, though the noon-day beams that played around thy brow were set,

Like clouds at eve, thy looks retained a tender lustre yet.

II.

We spoke I found thee more than all even Fancy e'er designed,

In feelings gentle, pure in taste, in sentiment refined-
Thy balmy words shed manna o'er the desert of my soul;
My hours with thee as brightly passed as sunny rivers roll.

III.

And art thou, like the wanderer wrecked upon his lonely

isle,

With none to weep when thou wouldst weep or gladden at thy smile?

And shall that Eden heart, where Love might build his sweetest shrine,

Be left amid a dreary world in solitude to pine?

IV.

Oh no! there is one faithful bosom warmly beats for thee! The cold neglect which thou hast felt endears thee more to

me;

For, though in summer hours of bliss the heart is lured to

roam,

'Tis winter's chilling blasts that serve to bind us most to home.

July 7th, 1829.

THE DEFEAT OF SISERA.

....

"The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.. and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaän, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord; for he (Sisera) had 900 chariots of iron, and 20 years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. ... And the Lord discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host. And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, . . . . until they had destroyed Jabin, king of Canaän." JUDGES, chap. iv. v. 1, 2, 3, 15, 23, 24.

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I.

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STRIKE ! strike the loud harp to the praise of the Lord,
And, on cymbals of gladness, his glory record!
Exult!-for the sceptre of Jabin is broke,
And Israel is freed from the Canaanites' yoke!

II.

O'er Tabor's wide plains, on Megiddo's green banks,
The Canaanite marshalled his numberless ranks;1
Like the fiend of the desert, in whirlwinds of flame,
Breathing death and destruction to Israel they came.

III.

When the shrieks of the night-tempest, echoing around, Through the hundred dark caves of the mountain resound;

"Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, "Go and draw toward Mount Tabor?" "The kings came and fought. by the waters of Megiddo." Judges iv. 6 and 9.

....

Hast thou seen the blue lightning, flash darting on flash? Hast thou heard the deep thunder, crash bursting on

crash?

IV.

As brightly the Canaanites' helmets and shields,
In the blaze of the morning illumined the fields ;
As loudly the chargers of Sisera pranced,

When his chariots to combat with Israel advanced.

V.

But where are the helmets, and where are the shields,
Whose blaze in the morning illumined the fields?
And where are the steeds that so haughtily pranced,
When Sisera's chariots to combat advanced?

VI.

Their splendour is dimmed in the blood of the slain-
They are rolling in Kishon's red tide to the main-
For the feast of the vulture in Taanach is spread,
And the kings of Canaän are strewed with the dead.1
VII.

The mother of Sisera looks out on high

From the halls of her palace, for evening is nigh;

And the wine-cup is brimmed, and the bright torches burn, And the banquet is piled, for the chieftain's return.

VIII.

She cries to her maidens," Why comes not my son?
Is the combat not o'er, and the battle not won?
The steeds of Canaän are many and strong-
Why tarry the wheels of his chariot so long?"

IX.

She saith in her heart, yea, her wise maidens say,—
"He taketh the spoil, he divideth the prey;
He seizeth the garment of glittering dyes,

And maketh the daughters of Beauty his prize!"s

1"Then fought the kings of Canaän in Taanach. river of Kishon swept them away." Judges, v. 19, 21.

The

2 "The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the

X.

But Sisera's mother shall view him no more;
With the warriors of Hazor he sleeps in his gore;
And the bear and the lion his coursers consume;
And the beak of the eagle is digging his tomb.

XI.

And the owl and the raven are flapping their wings; And their death-song is heard in the chambers of kings; For the sword of the Lord and of Israel lowers

O'er Sisera's palace, and Jabin's proud towers.

Nov. 13th, 1831.

EPIGRAM.

On the weeping and laughing philosophers.

Que vois-je? la discorde au milieu de ces sages?
Et de maîtres, entr'eux sans cesse divisés,
Naissent des spectateurs l'un à l'autre opposés.
Nos folles vanités font pleurer Héraclite;

Ces mêmes vanités font rire Democrite.

RACINE.

66

"If we look," says Racine, "to the lives of the wise, What opposite maxims we find!—

Here sad Heraclītus despondingly cries,

While Democritus laughs at mankind!"

But, as long as my stay in this planet extends,
To follow them both I propose-

With one, may I weep for my suffering friends,
With the other,—I'll laugh at my foes.

wheels of his chariots?' Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,-Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey? to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours meet for the necks of them that take the spoil. "—Judges v.

28, 29, 30.

THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

A SONG.

AIR-"A captain bold of Halifax once lived in country quarters."

I.

We live in times when ev'ry fool has plans to mend the nation; We've bibles, paper-banks1 and rules for checking population;

But, though of humbugs now-a-days we've such a grand variety,

The primest of all humbugs is-the Temperance Society. Oh! what a gag is the Temperance Society! Oh! what a gag is the Temperance Society!"

II.

The leader of this holy hoax is Mr. Justice ********, Whom something, at Dungarvan, that I need not tell, was stampt on,3

But, wasn't it a shame for Dan to give such notoriety
To that charge against a patron of-the Temperance Society?
Oh! what a gag is the Temperance Society!

Oh! what a gag is the Temperance Society!

III.

The rack-renting landlord, who in abundance riots,
While on water and potatoes his tenantry he diets,
Maintains the poor would be from all causes for disquiet free,
If they only would belong to the Temperance Society!
Oh! what a gag is the Temperance Society!

Oh! what a gag is the Temperance Society!

An allusion to the rage for banking speculations, and to the stopping of the Agricultural Bank, in Dublin, about the time those lines were written.

2 If the happy bucks, or "decided enemies of care," amongst whom this song may be sung, shall be in due spirits, or wine, or spirits of wine, or wine and spirits, then "oh! what a gag," &c., may be repeated in a full chorus of roaring glory.—Note of the Author for the Critics and the Saints.

3 See the "stolen or strayed" epistles, of a semi-official, semi-Galwagian description, that were intended "to make Dungarvan shake," but only contributed to drum the Grey ministry out of power to the tune of "The rogues' march."

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