ENGLAND. (BEPPO, Stanzas 47-49.) "ENGLAND! with all thy faults I love thee still," I said at Calais, and have not forgot it; I like to speak and lucubrate my fill; I like the government (but that is not it); I like the freedom of the press and quill; I like the Habeas Corpus (when we've got it); I like a parliamentary debate, Particularly when 'tis not too late ; I like the taxes, when they're not too many; That is, I like two months of every year. Our standing army, and disbanded seamen, Poor's rate, Reform, my own, the nation's debt, Our little riots just to show we are free men, Our trifling bankruptcies in the Gazette, Our cloudy climate, and our chilly women, All these I can forgive, and those forget, And greatly venerate our recent glories, And wish they were not owing to the Tories. WANTED-A HERO. (DON JUAN, Canto i. Stanzas 1-5.) I WANT a hero: an uncommon want, When every year and month sends forth a new one, Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, The age discovers he is not the true one; I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan- Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke, And fill'd their sign-posts then, like Wellesley now; Barnave, Brissot, Condorcet, Mirabeau, Petion, Clootz, Danton, Marat, La Fayette, Nelson was once Britannia's god of war, And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd ; At which the naval people are concern'd; Brave men were living before Agamemnon Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one); LONDON. (DON JUAN, Canto x. Stanzas 81, 82.) THE sun went down, the smoke rose up as from A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping, Dirty and dusky, but as wide as eye Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping In sight, then lost amidst the forestry Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy; THINGS SWEET. (Don Juan, Canto i. Stanzas 123-127). 'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home; 'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come ; 'Tis sweet to be awaken'd by the lark, Or lull'd by falling waters; sweet the hum Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds, The lisp of children, and their earliest words. Sweet is the vintage, when the showering grapes From civic revelry to rural mirth; Sweet to the miser are his glittering heaps, Sweet is a legacy, and passing sweet The unexpected death of some old lady Or gentleman of seventy years complete, Who've made "us youth" wait too-too long already For an estate, or cash, or country-seat, Still breaking, but with stamina so steady, 'Tis sweet to win, no matter how, one's laurels, Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels ; Dear is the helpless creature we defend Against the world; and dear the schoolboy spot We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot. But sweeter still, than this, than these, than all, Like Adam's recollection of his fall; The tree of knowledge has been pluck'd-all's known— And life yields nothing further to recall Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown, No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven Fire which Prometheus filch'd for us from heaven. |