TO A TIMID LEECH.

NAY, start not from the banquet where the red wine foams

for thee

Though somewhat thick to perforate this epidermis be ;

'Tis madness, when the bowl invites, to linger at the brink; So haste thee, haste thee, timid one. Drink, pretty creature, drink!

I tell thee, if these azure veins could boast the regal wine
Of Tudors or Plantagenets, the draught should still be thine!
Though round the goblet's beaded brim plebeian bubbles wink,
'Twill cheer and not inebriate. Drink, pretty creature, drink!

Perchance, reluctant being, I have placed thee wrong side up, And the lips that I am chiding have been farthest from the cup.

I have waited long and vainly, and I cannot, cannot think

Thou wouldst spurn the oft-repeated call: Drink, pretty creature, drink!

While I watch'd thy patient struggles, and imagined thou wert

coy,

'Twas thy tail, and not thy features, that refused the proffer'd

joy.

I will but turn thee tenderly-nay, never, never shrink

Now, once again the banquet calls: Drink, pretty creature

drink!

AG

ANACREONTIC.

(FOR A CAVALIER TEA-PARTY.)

Y, marry! With glee I abandon the

bottle;

But, mark me, not all your philo

sophers, up

From quaint MASTER MILL to an

tique ARISTOTLE,

Shall make me turn tail on the

saucer and cup.

Drink, roysterers all; and, ifegs!

while I utter

The praises of tea, let the burden resound.

Let those who prefer it have plain bread and butter ;

For me, lads, I warrant the toast shall go round.

Chorus.-Let those, &c.

H

Dull knaves who delight in the worship of BACCHUS

May jeer at our joys in their pestilent way.

Pert fools that love Sherris perchance may attack us;

What boots it, my bully boys? Drink and be gay. Adzooks, let the braggarts go sleep in the gutter; Carouse ye, so long as Bohea can be found; Let those who prefer it have plain bread and butter ; For me, lads, I warrant the toast shall go round. Chorus.-Let those, &c.

Odsbodikins!

Tea is the soul and the sinew

Of all the gay gallants that fight for the king; Long, long on the throne may our monarch continue,

To laugh at the French and bid rebels go swing. Drink, drink to our flag, boys; for ages shall flutter In glory and honour that standard renown'd. Let those who prefer it have plain bread and butter; For me, lads, I warrant the toast shall go round. Chorus.-Let those, &c.

A CHILD'S TWILIGHT

CHILD.

'HE sun drops down in the deep, deep west

THE

As a ball sinks into a cup;

And the moon springs rapidly up from rest

As a Jack-in-the-box leaps up.

Now falls the shadow and comes the dark,
And the face of the world is hid;

Like the men and the beasts in a Noah's ark
When they slumber beneath its lid.

So softly-slowly-the silence creeps
Over earth and all earthly things,
That it leaves Mankind like a doll that sleeps,
With nothing to touch the springs.