It happened a spider within did crawl, And spun him a web of ample size, Wherein there chanced one day to fall A couple of very imprudent flies. The first was a bottle-fly, big and blue, The second was smaller, and thin and long; So there was a concert between the two, Like an octave flute and a tavern gong. Now being from Paris but recently, 10 This fine young man would show his skill; And so they gave him, his hand to try, A hospital patient extremely ill. Some said that his liver was short of bile, This fine young man then up stepped he, But since the case is a desperate one, 20 So fast their little hearts did bound, The rûle sifflant and the râle sonore. He shook his head. There's grave dis ease, I greatly fear you all must die; A slight post-mortem, if you please, Surviving friends would gratify. The six young damsels wept aloud, Which so prevailed on six young men The keen debaters, trained to brawls and strife, Who fire one shot, and finish with the knife, Tried him but once, and, cowering in their shame, Ground their hacked blades to strike at meaner game. The lordly chief, his party's central stay, Whose lightest word a hundred votes obey, Found a new listener seated at his side, Looked in his eye, and felt himself defied, 1 Originally called 'The Disappointed Statesman.' See the notes on Emerson's' Webster,' p. 61, and Whittier's 'Ichabod,' p. 282. 1 See the notes on Whittier's The Last Walk in Autumn,' p. 292, and on Emerson's Written in Naples,' p. 60, and compare a recent sonnet on the Hudson by Mr. George S. Hellman: Where in its old historic splendor stands The memory, O Hudson, came to me Of one who went to seek the wide world o'er For Love, but found it not. Then home turned he TO AN ENGLISH FRIEND So, parted by the rolling flood, Of mingling smiles to bud and flower; Though fiery sun and stiffening cold (1861.) |