Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
And twined themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless-they were slain for food:
And war, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom; no love was left;
All earth was but one thought-and that was death,
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang

Of famine fed upon all entrails-men

;

Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh
The meagre by the meagre were devoured,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan

And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answered not with a caress-he died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,

And they were enemies; they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place

Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things

For an unholy usage; they raked up,

And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands

The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath

Blew for a little life, and made a flame

Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld

Each other's aspects-saw, and shriek'd, and died-
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless-
A lump of death- -a chaos of hard clay.

The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,

And nothing stirred within their silent depths;
Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea,

And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropp'd
They slept on the abyss without a surge—

The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon their mistress had expired before;
The winds were withered in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them-She was the universe.

RICHARD AND KATE.

(A SUFFOLK BALLAD.)

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD.

"COME, goody, stop your humdrum wheel, Sweep up your orts, and get your hat; Old joys revived once more I feel;

'Tis fair-day;—aye, and more than that:

"Have you forgot, Kate, prythee say, How many seasons here we've tarried?

'Tis forty years, this very day,

Since you and I, old girl, were married!

"Look out;-the sun shines warms and bright,
The stiles are low, the paths all dry;
I know you cut your corns last night:
Come, be as free from care as I.

"For I'm resolved once more to see
That place where we so often met;
Though few have had more cares than we,
We've none just now, to make us fret."

Kate scorned to damp the generous flame
That warmed her aged partner's breast;

Yet, ere determination came,

She thus some trifling doubts expressed:

"Night will come on; when seated snug,
And you've perhaps begun some tale,
you
then leave your dear stone mug;
Leave all the folk, and all the ale?"

Can

"Aye, Kate, I wool;—because I know,
Though time has been we both could run,
Such days are gone and over now;
I only mean to see the fun!"

She straight slipped off the wall and band, And laid aside her lucks and twitches: And to the hutch she reached her hand, And gave him out his Sunday breeches.

His mattock he behind the door,

And hedging-gloves again replaced ; And looked across the yellow moor,

And urged his tottering spouse to haste.

The day was up, the air serene,

The firmament without a cloud;

The bee hummed o'er the level green,

Where knots of trembling cowslips bowed.

And Richard thus, with heart elate,

As past things rushed across his mind, Over his shoulder talked to Kate,

Who, snug tucked up, walked slow behind.

"When once a giggling mauther you,
And I a red-faced chubby boy,
Sly tricks you played me not a few;
For mischief was your greatest joy.

"Once, passing by this very tree,

A gotch of milk I'd been to fill,
You shouldered me; then laughed to see
Me and my gotch spin down the hill !"

""Tis true!" she said; "but here behold,
And marvel at the course of time;
Though you and I are both grown old,
This tree is only in its prime !"

"Well, goody, don't stand preaching now,
Folks don't preach sermons at a fair;
We've reared ten boys and girls, you know,
And I'll be bound they'll all be there."

Now friendly nods and smiles had they
From many a kind fair-going face;
And many a pinch Kate gave away,
While Richard kept his usual pace.

At length arrived amidst the throng,
Grand-children bawling hemmed them round,
And dragged them by the skirts along
Where gingerbread bestrewed the ground.

And soon the aged couple spied

Their lusty sons and daughters dear :When Richard thus exulting cried,

"Didn't I tell you they'd be here?"

The cordial greetings of the soul
Were visible in every face;
Affection void of all control,
Governed with a resistless grace.

'Twas good to see the honest strife
Which should contribute most to please,

And hear the long-recounted life

Of infant tricks, and happy days.

But now, as at some nobler places,
Amongst the leaders 'twas decreed
Time to begin the dicky races;

More famed for laughter than for speed.

Richard looked on with wondrous glee,
And praised the lad who chanced to win;
"Kate, wa'nt I such a one as he?
As like him, ay, as pin to pin?

"Full fifty years are passed away
Since I rode this same ground about;
Why, I was lively as the day;

I won the high-lows out and out!

"I'm surely growing young again,

I feel myself so kedge and plump: From head to foot I've not one pain;

Nay, hang me if I couldn't jump!"

Thus spoke the ale in Richard's pate,
A very little made him mellow;
But still he loved his faithful Kate,

Who whispered thus:-"My good old fellow,

"Remember what you promised me;
And see the sun is getting low;
The children want an hour, ye see,
To talk a bit before we go."

Like youthful lover most complying,

He turned and chucked her by the chin; Then all across the green grass hieing,

Right merry faces, all akin,

Their farewell smiles, beneath a tree

That drooped its branches from above,

Awaked the pure felicity

That waits upon parental love.

« ForrigeFortsæt »