Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

INSTANS TYRANNUS.

I.

Of the million or two, more or less,

I rule and possess,

One man, for some cause undefined,
Was least to my mind.

II.

I struck him, he grovelled of course—
For, what was his force?

I pinned him to earth with my weight

And persistence of hate

And he lay, would not moan, would not curse,

As his lot might be worse.

III.

"Were the object less mean, would he stand

At the swing of my hand!

For obscurity helps him and blots

The hole where he squats."

So I set my five wits on the stretch

To inveigle the wretch.

All in vain! gold and jewels I threw,
Still he couched there perdue.

I tempted his blood and his flesh,
Hid in roses my mesh,

Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth—
Still he kept to his filth!

IV.

Had he kith now or kin, were access

To his heart, did I press—

Just a son or a mother to seize !

No such booty as these!

Were there simply a friend to pursue

'Mid my million or two,

Who could pay me in person or pelf

What he owes me himself!

No! I could not but smile through my chafe,

For the fellow lay safe

As his mates do, the midge and the nit,
-Through minuteness, to wit.

V.

Then a humour more great took its place
At the thought of his face,

The droop, the low cares of the mouth,

The trouble uncouth

'Twixt the brows, all that air one is fain

To put out of its pain—

And, no! I admonished myself,

"Is one mocked by an elf,

Is one baffled by toad or by rat?

The gravamen's in that!

How the lion, who crouches to suit

His back to my foot,

Would admire that I stand in debate!

But the Small turns the Great

If it vexes you—that is the thing!

Toad or rat vex the King?

Though I waste half my realm to unearth
Toad or rat, 'tis well worth!"

VI.

So I soberly laid my last plan

To extinguish the man.

Round his creep-hole, with never a break

Ran my fires for his sake;

Over-head, did my thunder combine

With my under-ground mine :

Till I looked from my labour content

To enjoy the event.

VII.

When sudden . . . how think ye, the end?

Did I say "without friend?"

Say rather, from marge to blue marge

The whole sky grew his targe

With the sun's self for visible boss,

While an Arm ran across

Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast

Where the wretch was safe prest!

Do you see? just my vengeance complete,

The man sprang to his feet,

Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed! -So, I was afraid.

HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY.

I ONLY knew one poet in my life:
And this, or something like it, was his way.

You saw go up and down Valladolid,
A man of mark, to know next time you saw.
His very serviceable suit of black

Was courtly once and conscientious still,

And many might have worn it, though none did :
The cloak, that somewhat shone and shewed the

threads,

Had purpose, and the ruff, significance.

He walked and tapped the pavement with his cane, Scenting the world, looking it full in face,

An old dog, bald and blindish, at his heels.

They turned up, now, the alley by the church,

That leads no whither; now, they breathed them

selves

On the main promenade just at the wrong time.

You'd come upon his scrutinising hat,

Making a peaked shade blacker than itself,
Against the single window spared some house
Intact yet with its mouldered Moorish work,-
Or else surprise the ferrel of his stick

Trying the mortar's temper 'tween the chinks
Of some new shop a-building, French and fine.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

Vo as into 2 Lgs. He cows v
And reads hem na e-oom of a night.
Ch. 701 night mile here wanted for a puch.
Aang ... well, I was not wholly ase
As back to your mind the man's look came-
Stricken in year a little ch 1 brow

His eyes had to live under-clear as fint
On either side the formidable nose

[graphic]

and coloured, like an eagle's claw.

with A.'s surprising fate? her old E. disappeared

« AnteriorContinuar »