Works

'Twas August - Hastings every day was filling -
Hastings, that "greenest spot on memory's waste"!
With crowds of idlers willing and unwilling
To be bedipped - be noticed - or be braced,...

"Old woman, old woman, will you go a-shearing?
Speak a little louder, for I'm very hard of hearing."
Old Ballad.


Of all old women hard of hearing,
The deafest, sure, was Dame Eleanor Spearing!...

Of all our pains, since man was curst,
I mean of body, not the mental,
To name the worst, among the worst,
The dental sure is transcendental;
Some bit of masticating bone,...

The Autumn skies are flush'd with gold,
And fair and bright the rivers run;
These are but streams of winter cold,
And painted mists that quench the sun.

In secret boughs no sweet birds sing,...

The Autumn is old,
The sere leaves are flying; -
He hath gather'd up gold,
And now he is dying; -
Old Age, begin sighing!

The vintage is ripe,
The harvest is heaping; -...

To Waterloo, with sad ado,
And many a sigh and groan,
Amongst the dead, came Patty Head,
To look for Peter Stone.

"O prithee tell, good sentinel,
If I shall find him here?...

It was not in the Winter
Our loving lot was cast;
It was the Time of Roses, -
We plucked them as we passed!

That churlish season never frown'd
On early lovers yet: -...

I.

Bianca! - fair Bianca! - who could dwell
With safety on her dark and hazel gaze,
Nor find there lurk'd in it a witching spell,
Fatal to balmy nights and blessed days?...

Good morrow to the golden morning,
Good morrow to the world's delight -
I've come to bless thy life's beginning,
Since it makes my own so bright!

I have brought no roses, sweetest,...

'Tis strange how like a very dunce,
Man - with his bumps upon his sconce,
Has lived so long, and yet no knowledge he
Has had, till lately, of Phrenology -
A science that by simple dint of...

One day the dreary old King of Death
Inclined for some sport with the carnal,
So he tied a pack of darts on his back,
And quietly stole from his charnel.

His head was bald of flesh and of hair,...

"I really take it very kind,
This visit, Mrs. Skinner!
I have not seen you such an age -
(The wretch has come to dinner!)

"Your daughters, too, what loves of girls -...

"To point a moral." - JOHNSON.


Fairest Lady and Noble, for once on a time,
Condescend to accept, in the humblest of rhyme,
And a style more of Gay than of Milton,...

O Saw ye not fair Ines?
She's gone into the West,
To dazzle when the sun is down,
And rob the world of rest:
She took our daylight with her,
The smiles that we love best,...

Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms!

Now as they bore him off the field,
Said he, "Let others shoot,...

Young Ben he was a nice young man,
A carpenter by trade;
And he fell in love with Sally Brown,
That was a lady's maid.

But as they fetch'd a walk one day,
They met a press-gang crew;...

Look how the lark soars upward and is gone,
Turning a spirit as he nears the sky!
His voice is heard, but body there is none
To fix the vague excursions of the eye....

I will not have the mad Clytie,
Whose head is turned by the sun;
The tulip is a courtly queen,
Whom, therefore, I will shun;
The cowslip is a country wench,
The violet is a nun; -...

It is not with a hope my feeble praise
Can add one moment's honor to thy own,
That with thy mighty name I grace these lays;
I seek to glorify myself alone:
For that some precious favor thou hast shown...

"Twa dogs, that were na thrang at hame,
Forgather'd ance upon a time." - BURNS.


One morn - it was the very morn
September's sportive month was born -
The hour, about the sunrise, early;...