While sages prate and courts debate,

The same stars set and shine;

And the world as it rolled through Twenty-Eight,

Must roll through Twenty-Nine.

Some King will come, in Heaven's good time, To the tomb his father came to;

Some Thief will wade through blood and crime
To a crown he has no claim to;

Some suffering land will rend in twain
The manacles that bound her;

And gather the links of the broken chain
To fasten them proudly round her;

The grand and great will love and hate,

And combat and combine ;

And much where we were in Twenty-Eight,
We shall be in Twenty-Nine.

O'Connell will toil to raise the Rent,
And Kenyon to sink the Nation;
And Shiel will abuse the Parliament,
And Peel the Association;

And thought of bayonets and swords

Will make ex-Chancellors merry ;

TWENTY-EIGHT AND TWENTY-NINE. 241

And jokes will be cut in the House of Lords,
And throats in the County of Kerry;

And writers of weight will speculate

On the Cabinet's design;

And just what it did in Twenty-Eight

It will do in Twenty-Nine.

And the Goddess of Love will keep her smiles,
And the God of Cups his orgies;

And there'll be riots in St. Giles,

And weddings in St. George's;

And mendicants will sup like Kings,

And Lords will swear like lacqueys;
And black eyes oft will lead to rings,
And rings will lead to black eyes;
And pretty Kate will scold her mate,
In a dialect all divine;

Alas! they married in Twenty-Eight,
They will part in Twenty-Nine.

My uncle will swathe his gouty limbs,
And talk of his oils and blubbers;

My aunt, Miss Dobbs, will play longer hymns,
And rather longer rubbers;

My cousin in Parliament will prove
How utterly ruined Trade is :

My brother, at Eton, will fall in love
With half a hundred ladies;

My patron will sate his pride from plate,
And his thirst from Bordeaux wine :

His nose was red in Twenty-Eight,
"Twill be redder in Twenty-Nine.

And O! I shall find how, day by day,
All thoughts and things look older;
How the laugh of Pleasure grows less gay,
And the heart of Friendship colder;
But still I shall be what I have been,

Sworn foe to Lady Reason,

And seldom troubled with the spleen,

And fond of talking treason;

I shall buckle my skait, and leap my gate,
And throw and write my line;

And the woman I worshipped in Twenty-Eight

I shall worship in Twenty-Nine.

HOW SHALL I WOO HER?

L'on n'aime bien qu'une seule fois: c'est la premiere. Les amours qui suivent sont moins involontaires!

La Bruyere.

I.

How shall I woo her ?-I will stand
Beside her when she sings;

And watch that fine and fairy hand
Flit o'er the quivering strings:
And I will tell her, I have heard,

Though sweet her song may be,

A voice, whose every whispered word

How shall I woo her ?—I will gaze,

In sad and silent trance,

On those blue eyes, whose liquid rays Look love in every glance:

And I will tell her, eyes more bright,

Though bright her own may beam,

Will fling a deeper spell to-night
Upon me in my dream.

III.

How shall I woo her ?—I will try
The charms of olden time,

And swear by earth and sea and sky,
And rave in prose and rhyme ;—

And I will tell her when I bent

My knee in other years,

I was not half so eloquent,—

I could not speak for tears!

IV.

How shall I woo her ?--I will bow

Before the holy shrine;

And

the prayer, pray

and vow the vow,

And press her lips to mine ;

And I will tell her, when she parts

From passion's thrilling kiss,

That memory to many hearts

Is dearer far than bliss.