ΤΟ COMPOSED AT ROTTERDAM. I GAZE upon a city,—a city new and strange; Down many a watery vista my fancy takes a range: Before me lie dark waters in broad canals and deep, Tall houses with quaint gables, where frequent windows shine, Who tells me you 're in England, but I'm at Rotterdam. THE SEASON. SUMMER'S gone and over! Boughs are daily rifled Round the tops of houses, Skies, of fickle temper, Weep by turns, and laugh— Night and Day together So September endeth Cold, and most perverse LOVE. O, LOVE! what art thou, Love? the ace of hearts, Trumping earth's kings and queens, and all its suits; A player, masquerading many parts In life's odd carnival; a boy that shoots, From ladies' eyes, such mortal woundy darts; A gardener, pulling heart's-ease up by the roots; The Puck of Passion-partly false-part realA marriageable maiden's "beau ideal"? O, Love! what art thou, Love? a wicked thing, Making green misses spoil their work at school; A melancholy man, cross-gartering! Grave ripe-faced Wisdom made an April fool? A youngster, tilting at a wedding-ring? A sinner, sitting on a cuttie-stool? O, Love! what art thou, Love? one that is bad A necklace of her garters-fell design! A poet, gone unreasonably mad, Ending his sonnets with a hempen line? O, Love!— but whither, now? forgive me, pray; I'm not the first that Love hath led astray. FAITHLESS SALLY BROWN. AN OLD BALLAD. YOUNG Ben he was a nice young man, A carpenter by trade; And he fell in love with Sally Brown, But as they fetched a walk one day, They met a press-gang crew; Whilst Ben he was brought to. The boatswain swore with wicked words, Enough to shock a saint, That though she did seem in a fit, 'T was nothing but a feint. 360 FAITHLESS SALLY BROWN. "Come, girl," said he, "hold up your head He'll be as good as me; For when your swain is in our boat, A boatswain he will be." So when they'd made their game And taken off her elf, of her, She roused, and found sne only was "And is he gone, and is he gone?" A waterman came up to her,- "Alas! they've taken my beau, Ben, Says he, "They've only taken him "O! would I were a mermaid now, But, O! I'm not a fish-woman, And so I cannot swim. "Alas! I was not born beneath The virgin and the scales, Now Ben had sailed to many a place But when he called on Sally Brown, He found she 'd got another Ben, "O, Sally Brown, O, Sally Brown, Then reading on his 'bacco-box, And then he tried to sing "All's Well," His head was turned, and so he chewed His death, which happened in his berth, They went and told the sexton, and With safety on her dark and hazel gaze, Nor find there lurked in it a witching spell, Fatal to balmy nights and blessed days? |