you care

Not a whit for rest or hush;

But the leaves, the lyric gush,

And the wing-power, and the rush

Of the air.

So I dare not woo you, Sweet,

For a day,

Lest I love you in a flash,

As I may;

Did I tell you tender things,

You would shake your

sudden wings;

You would start from him who sings,
And away.

AUSTIN DOBSON.

BEAUTY CLARE.

ALF Lucrece, half Messalina,
Lovely piece of Sèvres-china!
When I see you, I compare
You with common quiet creatures,
-Homely delf, in ways and features,-
Beauty Clare !

Surely Nature must have meant you
For a Syren, when she sent you
That sweet voice, and glittering hair.
-Was it touch of human passion
Made you woman, in a fashion-
Beauty Clare!

I think not. The moral door-step,
Cautiously you never o'er-step,

When your victims

you ensnare

-Lead them on with hopes-deceive themThen turn coldly round, and leave them,

Beauty Clare!

You've a husband, and you like him

Very fairly does it strike him

That at home a married pair Does not want a tenor-chorus, Ever, to his wife, canorous,

Beauty Clare?

Some new slave I note each season,
Wearing life away, his knees on.

(Moths around the taper's flare!)
Guardsman fine-or young attaché,
Black and smooth as papier-mâché ;
Beauty Clare.

In

your box, I see them dangling, Triumphs of successful angling,

Trophies ranged behind your chair;
How they watch the fan you flutter!
How they drink the words you utter,
Beauty Clare!

When at kettle-drums presiding,
I admire your tact, dividing

Smiles to each, in equal share,
Lest one slave wax over-jealous,
Or another grow less zealous,

Beauty Clare!

At each ball you fill a hundred

Girls, when you approach, with one dread,(What enchanting wreaths you wear!) -That the men will dance no longer,

Drawn by an attraction stronger,

Beauty Clare,

What perfection in your waltzing!
How in vain the women all sing,
When you warble some sweet air!

But, your sentimental ditty

Over, you are then the witty

Beauty Clare,

Men of every age and station
Listen to your conversation,

With a rapt admiring stare;

As though words that from your mouth fall Sweet as grapes were, on a south wall,

Beauty Clare.

How you light the smouldering embers
Of decrepit Peers and Members!
While you still have smiles to spare
For a new-fledged boy from college,
Sitting at your feet for knowledge!

-Beauty Clare.

At your country-seat in Salop,
What contention for a gallop

With you, on your chestnut mare!
How the country misses hate you,
Seeing o'er a five-barr'd gate,-you,

Beauty Clare!

?

Who at croquet can come near you
E'en the men, at billiards, fear you-
Might dislike you, if you were
Less engaging-child-like-simple—(!)
With that figure, and that dimple,

Beauty Clare!

All-accomplish'd little creature!

Fatally-endow'd by Nature,—

Were your inward soul laid bare, What should we discover under

That seductive mask, I wonder,

Beauty Clare ?

Should we find a heart, revealing
Any one warm, tender feeling?
Or a cold, hard nature, there,

Saving you in the Law's letter—

From the lot of many a better,

Beauty Clare?

Yet-who knows? Good might have won youHave not those rare gifts undone you?

Had it not been better, ne'er

To have had gifts rain'd so thickly,

Vanity-corrupted, quickly,

Beauty Clare

Had you once a little sister?

Did when at night you

you,

kiss'd her,

Ever breathe an inward pray'r,

That, in all things, God would make her
Unlike you, or else would take her,

Beauty Clare?

For the thought of a Hereafter
Hushes even your light laughter
Sometimes, I suppose? Beware,
How
you find yourself within it !-
All is changed in such a minute,

-Beauty Clare!

When the day shall overtake you
That your lovers all forsake you,

How with you, then, will it fare?
When your conquests are forgotten
In the Row that men call "Rotten,"
Beauty Clare?

Locks grown thin, and roses faded,
From your pinnacle degraded,
When the men no longer care
Round your wither'd form to cluster,-
Friends how
many shall you muster,
Beauty Clare?