OF A BAD SINGER Swans sing before they die; 'twere no bad thing Samuel Taylor Coleridge EPIGRAM After such years of dissension and strife, Thomas Hood SORROWS OF WERTHER Werther had a love for Charlotte Charlotte was a married lady, And a moral man was Werther, So he sighed and pined and ogled, Till he blew his silly brains out, Charlotte, having seen his body Borne before her on a shutter, Like a well-conducted person, William Makepeace Thackeray REFLECTIONS ON CLEOPATHERA'S NEEDLE So that's Cleopathera's Needle, bedad, An' a quare lookin' needle it is, I'll be bound; Imagine her sittin' there stitchin' like mad Wid a needle like that in her hand! I declare The taste of her, ordherin' a needle of granite! I wondher can these be the thracks of her thumb! I once was astonished to hear of the faste Cleopathera made upon pearls; but now I declare, I would not be surprised in the laste It's aisy to see why bould Cæsar should quail Wid a weapon like that in her fist I'll go bail She could frighten the sowl out of big Finn MacCool! But, Lord, what poor pigmies the women are now, Compared with the monsthers they must have been then! Whin the darlin's in those days would kick up a row, Holy smoke, but it must have been hot for the men! Just think how a chap that goes courtin' would start That the needle in front of me there takes the pins! O, sweet Cleopathera! I'm sorry you're dead; |