I found him at threescore and ten, A single man, but bent quite double, Sickness was coming on him then, To take him from a world of troubleHe prosed of slipping down the hill, Discovered he grew older daily; One frosty day he made his will- And so he lived-and so he died :- Tell her I hugged her rosy chain While life was flickering in the socket: And say, that when I call again, "I've left my house and grounds to Fag(I hope his master's shoes will suit him ;) And I've bequeathed to you my nag, To feed him for my sake-or shoot him. The Vicar's wife will take old Fox She'll find him an uncommon mouser; And let her husband have my box, My Bible, and my Assmanshauser. Whether I ought to die or not My doctors cannot quite determine; It's only clear that I shall rot, And be, like Priam, food for vermin. My debts are paid ;-but Nature's debt III.—THE BELLE OF THE BALL-ROOM. YEARS, years ago, ere yet my dreams Or yawn'd o'er this infernal Chitty; I fell in love with Laura Lilly. I saw her at the County Ball: There when the sounds of flute and fiddle Gave signal sweet in that old hall, Of hands across and down the middle, Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that sets young hearts romancing: She was our queen, our rose, our star; And then she danced-oh, heaven, her dancing! Dark was her hair, her hand was white; Her voice was exquisitely tender, Her eyes were full of liquid light; I never saw a waist so slender; VOL. II.-7 Her every look, her every smile, Shot right and left a score of arrows; I thought 'twas Venus from her isle, And wondered where she'd left her sparrows. She talked of politics or prayers— Of Southey's prose, or Wordsworth's sonnets, Of danglers or of dancing bears, Of battles, or the last new bonnets; By candle-light, at twelve o'clock, To me it matter'd not a tittle, If those bright lips had quoted Locke, I might have thought they murmured Little. Through sunny May, through sultry June, I spoke her praises to the moon, I wrote them to the Sunday Journal. My mother laughed; I soon found out That ancient ladies have no feeling; My father frown'd; but how should gout See any happiness in kneeling? She was the daughter of a dean, And lord-lieutenant of the county. But titles and the three per cents, And mortgages, and great relations, And India bonds, and tithes and rents, Oh! what are they to love's sensations? Black eyes, fair forehead, clustering locks, Such wealth, such honors, Cupid chooses; He cares as little for the stocks, As Baron Rothschild for the muses. She sketch'd; the vale, the wood, the beach, Young blossom in her boudoir fading; She touch'd the organ; I could stand For hours and hours to blow the bellows. She kept an album, too, at home, Well filled with all an album's glories; Paintings of butterflies and Rome, Patterns for trimmings, Persian stories; Soft songs to Julia's cockatoo, Fierce odes to famine and to slaughter; And autographs of Prince Lèboo, And recipes of elder water. And she was flatter'd, worshipp'd, bored, Her steps were watch'd, her dress was noted, Her poodle dog was quite adored, Her sayings were extremely quoted. She laugh'd, and every heart was glad, She smil❜d on many just for fun— Her heart had thought of for a minute; I knew it, for she told me so, In phrase which was divinely moulded; She wrote a charming hand, and oh! How sweetly all her notes were folded! Our love was like most other loves- Some hopes of dying broken-hearted, The usual vows-and then we parted. We parted-months and years roll'd by; We met again four summers after; Our parting was all sob and sigh Our meeting was all mirth and laughter; For in my heart's most secret cell, There had been many other lodgers; And she was not the ball-room's belle, But only-Mrs. Something Rogers! (1830.) |