IV. "Wrinkled ostler, grim and thin! "Bitter barmaid, waning fast! See that sheets are on my bed Let us hob-and-nob with Death. "I am old, but let me drink ; Bring me spices, bring me wine; 1 remember, when I think, That my youth was half divine. "Wine is good for shrivell'd lips, When a blanket wraps the day, When the rotten woodland drips, And the leaf is stamp'd in clay. "Sit thee down, and have no shame, Cheek by jowl, and knee by knee: What care I for any name? What for order or degree? "Let me screw thee up a peg: Let me loose thy tongue with wine : Callest thou that thing a leg? Which is thinnest? thine or mine? "Thou shalt not be saved by works: Thou hast been a sinner too : Ruin'd trunks on wither'd forks, Empty scarecrows, I and you! "Fill the cup, and fill the can: Have a rouse before the morn : Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born. And I desire to rest. BREAK, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where And I would that my tongue could utter I lie : Go by, go by. THE EAGLE. FRAGMENT. HE clasps the crag with hooked hands; The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; MOVE eastward, happy earth, and leave O, happy planet, eastward go; Ah, bear me with thee, smoothly borne, The thoughts that arise in me. That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud, And the lark drop down at his feet. The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee, And stared, with his foot on the prey, And the nightingale thought, "I have sung many songs, But never a one so gay, For he sings of what the world will be When the years have died away." My life is full of weary days, But good things have not kept aloof, Nor wandered into other ways: I have not lack'd thy mild reproof, And now shake hands across the brink THE CAPTAIN. A LEGEND OF THE NAVY. HE that only rules by terror Doeth grievous wrong. Let him hear my song. Brave the Captain was: the seamen Made a gallant crew, Gallant sons of English freemen, So they past by capes and islands, Sailing under palmy highlands On a day when they were going "Chase," he said: the ship flew forward, Then they look'd at him they hated, Mute with folded arms they waited - But they heard the foeman's thunder All the air was torn in sunder, Spars were splinter'd,decks were shatter'd, Over mast and deck were scatter'd Blood and brains of men. Spars were splinter'd ; decks were broken: Every mother's son Down they dropt- no word was spoken- On the decks as they were lying, In their blood, as they lay dying, With one smile of still defiance Sold him unto shame. Shame and wrath his heart confounded, Pale he turn'd and red, Till himself was deadly wounded Dismal error! fearful slaughter! THREE SONNETS TO A COQUETTE. I. CARESS'D or chidden by the dainty hand, And singing airy trifles this or that, Light Hope at Beauty's call would perch and stand, |