Fixed as a monument, still as air,

He bent no knee, and he breathed no prayer;
But he signed-he knew not why or how-
The sign of the Cross on his clammy brow.

There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,
As he stalked away with his iron box.

"O ho! O ho!

The cock doth crow;

It is time for the fisher to rise and

go.

Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine!

He hath gnawed in twain my choicest line;

Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the south, The abbot will carry my hook in his mouth!"

The abbot had preached for many years,

With as clear articulation

As ever was heard in the House of Peers

Against Emancipation;

His words had made battalions quake,

Had roused the zeal of martyrs;

He kept the court an hour awake,
And the king himself three quarters:

But ever, from that hour, 'tis said,
He stammered and he stuttered,

As if an axe went through his head
With every word he uttered.

He stuttered o'er blessing, he stuttered o'er ban,

He stuttered, drunk or dry;

And none but he and the fisherman

Could tell the reason why!

(1827.)

POEMS OF LOVE AND FANCY.

LIDIAN'S LOVE.

The gayest gallants of the Court

Oft fell in love, on mere report,

With eyes they had not seen;

And knelt, and rhymed, and sighed, and frowned,
In talismanic fetters bound,

With flowers and sunshine all around

And five-score leagues between.—MS. Poem.

I.

SIR LIDIAN had attained his sixteenth year;
The golden age of life, wherein are met
Boyhood's last hope and Manhood's earliest fear
In mingled bliss and beauty;-you forget
Your cradle's laughter, and your school-room's tear,
Your maiden medal, and your first gazette;
But never, never, the bright dreams that blind you
When sixteen years are newly left behind you.

II.

The daily longings to be very great,
The nightly studies to be very killing,
The blessed recklessness of human hate,
The sonnet-singing, and the sigh-distilling,
The chase of folly, and the scorn of fate,

Friendship's fresh throb, and Passion's April thrill

ing

For some high lady, whom your elder brother
Declares is old enough to be your mother.