Fugitive Pieces Part 9

Across the green in numbers fly.

18.

Loud rings in air, the chapel bell, 'Tis hush'd,--what sounds are these I hear, The organ's soft celestial swell, Rolls deeply on the listening ear.

19.

To this is join'd the sacred song, The royal minstrel's hallowed strain, But _he_ who hears the _music_ long, Will _never_ wish to _hear again_.

20.

Our choir would scarcely be excus'd, Even as a band of raw beginners, But mercy now must be refus'd, To such a set of croaking sinners.

21.

If David when his toils were ended, Had heard these blockheads sing before him, To us his psalms had ne'er descended, In furious mood he would have tore 'em.

22.

The luckless Israelites when taken, By some inhuman tyrant's order, Were ask'd to sing, by joy forsaken, On Babylonian river's border.

23.

But had they sung in notes like these, Inspir'd by stratagem, or fear, They might have set their hearts at ease, The devil a soul had stay'd to hear.

24.

_But if I write_ much longer now, The deuce a soul _will stay to read_, My pen is blunt, the ink is low, 'Tis almost time to _stop, indeed_.

25.

Therefore farewell, old GRANTA's spires, No more like _Cleofas_ I fly, No more thy theme my muse inspires, The reader's tired, and so am I.

_October_ 28, 1806.

[Footnote 8: The Diable Boiteux of LE SAGE, where Asmodeus the Demon, places Don Cleofas on an elevated situation, and unroofs the houses for his inspection.]

[Footnote 9: Sele's publication on Greek metres is not remarkable for its accuracy.]

[Footnote 10: Every Cambridge man will a.s.sent to this,--the Latin of the Schools is almost unintelligible.]

[Footnote 11: The discovery of Pythagoras, that the square of the Hypothenuse, is equal to the squares of the other two sides of a right angled triangle.]

[Footnote 12: On a Saint Day, the Students wear Surplices in Chapel.]

TO THE SIGHING STREPHON.

Your pardon my friend, If my rhymes did offend, Your pardon a thousand times o'er, From friends.h.i.+p I strove, Your pangs to remove, But I swear I will do so no more.

2.

Since your _beautiful_ maid Your flame has repaid, No more I your folly regret; She's now most divine, And I bow at the shrine, Of this quickly reformed coquette.

3.

But still I must own, I should never have known, From _your verses_ what else she deserv'd, Your pain seem'd so great, I pitied your fate, As your fair was so dev'lish reserv'd.

4.

But since the chaste kiss, Of this magical Miss, Such wonderful transports produce, Since the "_world you forget,"

"When your lips once have met_,"

My Counsel will get but abuse.

5.

You say "when I rove"

"I know nothing of love,"

'Tis true I am given to range, If I rightly remember, I've kiss'd a good number, But there's pleasure at least in a change.

6.

I ne'er will advance, By the rules of romance, To humour a whimsical fair, Though a smile may delight, Yet a _frown_ wont _affright_, Or drive me to dreadful despair.

7.

Whilst my blood is thus warm, I ne'er shall reform, To mix in the Platonist's school; Of this I am sure, Was my pa.s.sion so pure, _My mistress_ must think me _a fool_.

8.

Though the kisses are sweet, Which voluptuously meet, Of kissing I ne'er was so fond, As to make me forget, Though our lips oft have met, That still there was _something beyond_.

9.

And if I should shun, Every _woman_ for _one_, Whose _image_ must fill my whole breast; Whom I must _prefer_, And _sigh_ but for _her_, What an _insult_ 'twould be to the _rest_!

10.

Now, Strephon, good bye, I cannot deny, _Your pa.s.sion_ appears most absurd, Such _love_ as you plead, Is _pure_ love indeed, For it _only_ consists in the _word_.

THE CORNELIAN.