Ballads

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ballads, by William Hayley
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Ballads
Founded On Anecdotes Relating To Animals
Author: William Hayley
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9048]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on September 1, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BALLADS ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Robert Prince and Distributed Proofreaders
BALLADS,
BY WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ.
FOUNDED ON ANECDOTES RELATING TO ANIMALS,
WITH PRINTS, DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM BLAKE.
1805.
PREFACE
Three words of Horace may form an introduction to the following pages, the very words, which that amiable physician and poet, the late Dr. Cotton of St. Alban's, prefixed as a motto to his elegant and moral little volume of Visions in Verse:
"VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE CANTO."
Or in plainer English prose:--The book is intended for young Readers.
BALLADS.
THE DOG.
BALLAD THE FIRST.
Of all the speechless friends of man?The faithful dog I deem?Deserving from the human clan?The tenderest esteem:
This feeling creature form'd to love,?To watch, and to defend,?Was given to man by powers above,?A guardian, and a friend!
I sing, of all e'er known to live?The truest friend canine;?And glory if my verse may give,?Brave Fido! it is thine.
A dog of many a sportive trick,?Tho' rough and large of limb.?Fido would chase the floating stick?When Lucy cried, "go swim."
And what command could Lucy give,?Her dog would not obey??For her it seemed his pride to live,?Blest in her gentle sway!
For conscious of her every care?He strain'd each feeling nerve,?To please that friend, his lady fair?Commanded him to serve.
Of many friends to Lucy dear,?One rose above the rest;?Proclaim'd, in glory's bright career.?The monarch of her breast.
Tender and brave, her Edward came?To bid his fair adieu;?To India call'd, in honour's name,?To honour he was true.
The farewell rack'd poor Lucy's heart,?Nor pain'd her lover less;?And Fido, when he saw them part,?Seem'd full of their distress.
Lucy, who thro' her tears descried?His sympathetic air,?"Go! with him, Fido!" fondly cried,?"And make his life thy care!"
The dog her order understood,?Or seem'd to understand,?It was his glory to make good?Affection's kind command.
How he obeyed;--the price how great?His brave obedience cost,?Fancy would faulter to relate,?In wild conjecture lost.
But Truth and Love, the upright pair,?Who witnessed Fido's worth,?His wond'rous virtue shall declare,?A lesson to the earth!
Not in the battle's gory tide,?Nor in the stormy seas,?No! Fido's noble faith was tried?In scenes of sportive ease.
Often in India's sultry soil?To brace the languid limb,?'Twas Edward's pleasure, after toil,?To take a fearless swim.
Bold in a flood he lov'd to leap.?When full the current flow'd;?Nor dreamt the water, dark, and deep.?The crocodile's abode.
And fearless he and Fido oft,?Along the stream would glide;?Their custom from the bank aloft?To vault into the tide!
But once, when Edward had begun?To cast his clothes aside,?Round him his dog would anxious run,?And much to check him tried.
So much, that had dumb Fido said?"Avoid the stream to day!"?Those words could scarce have plainer made?What duty wish'd to say.
Edward, too eager to enjoy?The sport, where danger lay,?Scolds him for gestures, that annoy,?And beats his guard away:
And naked now, and dreaming not?How cruel was that blow,?He hurries to the lofty spot,?In haste to plunge below,
His faithful friend, with quicker pace,?And now with silent tongue,?Out-stript his master in the race,?And swift before him sprung.
Heaven! how the heart of Edward swell'd?Upon the river's brink,?When his brave guardian he beheld?A glorious victim sink!
Sink in a watery monster's jaw,?That near the river's side?Too late th' astonish'd Edward saw,?And shriek'd, as Fido died.
In vain he shriek'd; and soon his tears?His heart-felt loss deplore;?"Lucy!" he cries, as if she hears,?"Thy Fido is no more!"
"Calamitously lost, his form,?So often thy delight!?No artist's hand, with genius warm,?Can rescue for thy sight;"
"But if 'tis sung by friendly bard?How he resign'd his breath;?Thy dog must win the world's regard,?Immortal in his death!"
'Twas thus the feeling Edward griev'd,?Nor could his grief divine,?What honours, by pure love conceived,?Brave Fido, would be thine!
When Lucy heard of Fido's fate,?What showers of tears she shed!?No cost would she have thought too great?To celebrate the dead.
But gold had not the power to raise?A semblance of her