EXTRAVAGANCE - EXTREMES.

EXTRAVAGANCE.

The man who build
Provides a home from which to run away.

and wants wherewith to pay,

We sacrifice to dress, till household joys
And comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry,
And keeps our larder clean; puts out our fires,
And introduces hunger, frost and woe,
Where peace and hospitality might reign.

Dreading that climax of all human ills,
The inflammation of his weekly bills.

EXTREMES.

In my young days they lent me cash that way,
Which I found very troublesome to pay.

COWPER'S Task.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

249

YOUNG

BYRON'S Don Juan.

These violent delights have violent ends

And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,

Which, as they meet, consume. The sweetest honey

Is loathsome in its own deliciousness,

And in the taste confounds the appetite.

Those edges soonest turn, that are most keen;
A sober moderation stands secure,

No violent extremes endure.

SHAKSPEARE.

Who gripes too hard the dry and slippery sand,
Holds none at all, or little, in his hand.

ALEYN

HERRICK

250

EYES-FEATURES - LIPS, &c.

Extremes, though contrary, have the like effects :
Extreme heat mortifies, like extreme cold;
Extreme love breeds satiety, as well
As extreme hatred; and too violent rigour
Tempts chastity as much as too much license.

For ever in a passion or a prayer.

EYES — FEATURES — LIPS, &c.

Compare her eyes,

Not to the sun, for they do shine by night;

Nor to the moon, for they are changing never;
Nor to the stars, for they have purer light;

CHAPMAN

And, as the bright sun glorifies the sky,
So is her face illumin'd by her eye.

Nor to the fire, for they consume not ever :-
But to the Maker's self they likest be,
Whose light doth lighten all things here we see.
SPENSER'S Sonnets.

SHAKSPEARE.

Her eyes, in heaven,

Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night.

POPE.

SHAKSPEARE.

Her eyes, like marygold, had sheath'd their light,
And, canopied in darkness, sweetly lay,
Till they might open to adorn the day.

From woman's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the true Promethean fire;
They are the arts, the books, the academies,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

EYES-FEATURES - LIPS &c.

Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes.

Soft as the down, that swells the cygnet's nest.
Her tresses, loose behind,

Play on her neck, and wanton in the wind,
The rising blushes which her cheek o'erspread,
Are opening roses in the lily's bed.

In those sunk eyes the grief of years I trace,
And sorrow seems acquainted with that face.

In one soft look what language lies!

Her eyes outshine the radiant beams
That gild the passing shower,
And glitter o'er the crystal streams,
And cheer each fresh'ning hour.
Her lips are more than cherries bright,
A richer dye has grac'd them;
They charm the admiring gazer's sight,
And sweetly tempt to kiss them!

251

From the glance of her eye

Shun danger and fly,

For fatal's the glance of Kate Kearney.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHENSTONE,

GAY'S Dione.

ICKELL.

DIBDIN.

BURNS.

By your eyes of heavenly blue,
By your lips' ambrosial dew,
Your cheeks, where rose and lily blend,
Your voice, the music of the spheres!

The Padlock-A Farce. Which melted in love, and which kindled in war.

CAMPBELL.

MISS OWENSON.

With sweetness and beauty thy daughters arise,
With rose-blooming cheeks, and love-languishing eyes.

252

EYES - FEATURES-LIPS, &c.

Down her white neck, long, floating auburn cur's,
The least of which would set ten poets raving.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

Her glossy hair was cluster'd o'er a brow

Bright with intelligence, and fair and smooth;
Her eyebrows' shape was like the aerial bow;
Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth.
BYRON'S Don Juan.

An eye's an eye, and, whether black or blue,
Is no great matter, so 't is in request;
"Tis nonsense to dispute about a hue;

The kindest may be taken as the best.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

A pure, transparent, pale, and radiant face,
Like to a lighted alabaster vase.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

Her eye's dark charm 't were vain to tell;
But gaze on that of the gazelle,
It will assist thy fancy well.

BYRON'S Giaour.

Soft eyes

look'd love to eyes that spoke again.
BYRON'S Childe Harold.
And the wild sparkle of her eye seem'd caught
From high, and lighten'd with electric thought.

BYRON'S Lara.

DR. DWIGHT.

disclos'd what eyes alone can tell.

And eyes
Eyes like the starlight of the soft midnight,
So darkly beautiful, so deeply bright.

MRS. C. H. W. ESLING.
And hate's last lightning quivers from his eyes.
CHARLES SPRAGUE,

There are whole veins of diamonds in thine eyes,
Might furnish crowns for all the queens of earth.

BAILEY'S Festua.

EYES - FEATURES - LIPS, &c.

With lightsome brow, and beaming eyes, and bright,
Long, glorious locks, which drop upon thy cheek,
Like gold-hued cloud-flakes on the rosy morn.

Thy blue eyes

Steal o'er the heart like sunshine o'er the skies;
Theirs is the mild and intellectual ray
That to the inmost spirit wins its way;
Theirs are the beams that full upon you roll,
Surprising all the senses and the soul.

The bright black eye, the melting blue-
I cannot choose between the two;
But that is dearest all the while,
That wears for me the sweetest smile.

BAILEY'S Festus

MRS. A. B. WELBY

Sweet, pouting lips, whose colour mocks the rose,
Rich, ripe, and teeming with the dew of bliss,-
The flower of love's forbidden fruit, which grows
Insidiously, to tempt us with a kiss.

O. W. HOLMES

253

Yet well that eye could flash resentment's rays,
Or, proudly scornful, check the boldest gaze;
Chill burning passion with a calm disdain,
And with one glance rekindle it again.

R. H. WILDE's Tasso's Sonnets.

Let other men bow, and utter the vow
Of devotion and love without end,

As the sparkling black eye in triumph draws nigh,
Its glances upon them to bend.

C. F. HOFFMAN,

But give me the eye, thro' which I can spy

To the depths of a heart warm and true; Whose colour may vie with the hue of the sky,— The soft, the sweet, love-beaming blue!

J. T. WATSON.