The Scarlet Gown | Page 6

doorway into the street,?A strong wind lifted his hat from his head,
And he uttered some words that were far from sweet.?And then he started to follow the chase,
And put on a spurt that was wild and fleet,?It made the people pause in a crowd,
And lay odds as to which would beat.
The street cad scoffed as he hunted the hat,
The errand-boy shouted hooray!?The scavenger stood with his broom in his hand,
And smiled in a very rude way;?And the clergyman thought, 'I have heard many words,
But never, until to-day,?Did I hear any words that were quite so bad
As I heard that young man say.'
A SONG OF GREEK PROSE
Thrice happy are those?Who ne'er heard of Greek Prose--?Or Greek Poetry either, as far as that goes;
For Liddell and Scott?Shall cumber them not,?Nor Sargent nor Sidgwick shall break their repose.
But I, late at night,?By the very bad light?Of very bad gas, must painfully write
Some stuff that a Greek?With his delicate cheek?Would smile at as 'barbarous'--faith, he well might.
For when it is done,?I doubt if, for one,?I myself could explain how the meaning might run;
And as for the style--?Well, it's hardly worth while?To talk about style, where style there is none.
It was all very fine?For a poet divine?Like Byron, to rave of Greek women and wine;
But the Prose that I sing?Is a different thing,?And I frankly acknowledge it's not in my line.
So away with Greek Prose,?The source of my woes!?(This metre's too tough, I must draw to a close.)
May Sargent be drowned?In the ocean profound,?And Sidgwick be food for the carrion crows!
AN ORATOR'S COMPLAINT
How many the troubles that wait
On mortals!--especially those?Who endeavour in eloquent prose?To expound their views, and orate.
Did you ever attempt to speak
When you hadn't a word to say??Did you find that it wouldn't pay,?And subside, feeling dreadfully weak?
Did you ever, when going ahead
In a fervid defence of the Stage,?Get checked in your noble rage?By somehow losing your thread?
Did you ever rise to reply?To a toast (say 'The Volunteers'),?And evoke loud laughter and cheers,?When you didn't exactly know why?
Did you ever wax witty, and when
You had smashed an opponent quite small,?Did he seem not to mind it at all,?But get up and smash you again?
If any or all of these things
Have happened to you (as to me),?I think you'll be found to agree?With yours truly, when sadly he sings:
'How many the troubles that wait
On mortals!--especially those?Who endeavour in eloquent prose?To expound their views, and orate.'
MILTON
WITH APOLOGIES TO LORD TENNYSON
O swallow-tailed purveyor of college sprees,?O skilled to please the student fraternity,
Most honoured publican of Scotland,
Milton, a name to adorn the Cross Keys;?Whose chosen waiters, Samuel, Archibald,?Helped by the boots and marker at billiards,
Wait, as the smoke-filled, crowded chamber
Rings to the roar of a Gaelic chorus--?Me rather all those temperance hostelries,?The soda siphon fizzily murmuring,
And lime fruit juice and seltzer water
Charm, as a wanderer out in South Street,?Where some recruiting, eager Blue-Ribbonites?Spied me afar and caught by the Post Office,
And crimson-nosed the latest convert
Fastened the odious badge upon me.
MAGNI NOMINIS UMBRA
St. Andrews! not for ever thine shall be
Merely the shadow of a mighty name,?The remnant only of an ancient fame?Which time has crumbled, as thy rocks the sea.
For thou, to whom was given the earliest key
Of knowledge in this land (and all men came?To learn of thee), shalt once more rise and claim?The glory that of right belongs to thee.
Grey in thine age, there yet in thee abides
The force of youth, to make thyself anew
A name of honour and a place of power.?Arise, then! shake the dust from off thy sides;
Thou shalt have many where thou now hast few;
Again thou shalt be great. Quick come the hour!
SONG FROM 'THE PRINCESS'
As through the street at eve we went
(It might be half-past ten),?We fell out, my friend and I,?About the cube of x+y,
And made it up again.?And blessings on the falling out
Between two learned men,?Who fight on points which neither knows,
And make it up again!?For when we came where stands an inn
We visit now and then,?There above a pint of beer,?Oh there above a pint of beer,
We made it up again.
ANDREW M'CRIE
FROM THE UNPUBLISHED REMAINS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
It was many and many a year ago,
In a city by the sea,?That a man there lived whom I happened to know
By the name of Andrew M'Crie;?And this man he slept in another room,
But ground and had meals with me.
I was an ass and he was an ass,
In this city by the sea;?But we ground in a way which was more than a grind,
I and Andrew M'Crie;?In a way that the idle semis next door
Declared was shameful to see.
And this was the reason that, one dark night,?In this city by the sea,?A stone flew in at the window, hitting
The milk-jug and Andrew M'Crie.?And once some low-bred tertians came,
And bore him away from me,?And shoved him into a private house
Where the