All the little shakes and stills,
Of the over-song that rills

From a bird.

You have just their eager, quick

* Airs de tête," All their Alush and fever-heat

When elate ; Every bird-like nod and beck, And a bird's own curve of neck When she gives a little peck

To her mate.

а

When

you
left me, only now,

In that furred, Puffed, and feathered Polish dress,

I was spurred
Just to catch you, O my Sweet,
By the bodice trim and neat, —
Just to feel

your
heart a-beat,

Like a bird.

a

Yet, alas! Love's light you deign

But to wear
As the dew upon your plumes,

And
Not a whit for rest or hush;
But the leaves, the lyric gush,
And the wing-power, and the rush

Of the air.

you care

So I dare not woo you, Sweet,

For a day,
Lest I love you in a flash,
Did I tell you tender things,

a

As I may;

You would shake your sudden wings ;-
You would start from him who sings,

And away.

AUSTIN DOBSON.

BEAUTY CLARE.

N

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!

1

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!

a

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 youMight 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,

a

Saving you—in the Law's letter-
From the lot of many a better,

Beauty Clare?
Yet—who knows? Good might have won you“
Have 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 you,

when at night 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