Y first was creeping on its way Through the mists of a dull October
When a minstrel came to its muddy
With a harp on his shoulder, a wreath on his head ;"And how shall I reach," the poor boy cried,
"To the courts and the cloisters on th' other side?"
Old Euclid came and he frowned a frown,
And he dashed the harp and the garland down;
Then he led the bard, with a stately march,
O'er my second's long and lettered arch;-
"And see," said the sage, "how every ass
Over the sacred stream must pass!"
The youth was mournful, the youth was mute,
He sighed for his laurel, he sobbed for his lute;-
The youth took comfort, the youth took snuff;
He followed the lead of that teacher gruff:
And he sits ever since in my whole's kind lap,
In a silken gown, and a trencher cap!
2. My first, though your house and your life it
You ungratefully name as a wretch to despise;
My second, I say it with grief, comprehends
The good and the learned, the brave and the wise:
Of my whole I have little or nothing to say,
Except that it marked the departure of day.
RIGHT REV. BEILBY PORTEUS,
My first no life or feeling blesses,
My second every sense possesses,
And nothing more affronts my second
Than when it like my first is reckoned:
United, they a being show,
The greatest nuisance that we know.
GEORGIANA, Duchess of Devonshire.
My first does affliction denote,
Which my second is destined to feel;
My whole is the best antidote,
That affliction to soothe and to heal.
5. My first is a comfort and a convenience, yet many have laid down their lives when compelled to approach me. In my second I am exalted to the first place in the noblest orders of society. In the army and the navy I hold the highest rank; in short, of all human beings I am uppermost. But compound me, and I am again degraded, for I then become what no one would wish to be thought.
My first, in torrents bleak and black,
Was rushing from the sky,
When, with my second at his back,
Young Cupid wandered by ;—
"Now take me in, the moon hath past,
I pray ye, take me in!
The lightnings flash, the hail falls fast,
All Hades rides the thunder blast,
I'm dripping to the skin!"
"I know thee well, thy songs and sighs;
A wicked god thou art;
And yet most welcome to the eyes,
Most witching to the heart!"
The wanderer prayed another prayer,
And shook his drooping wing;
The lover bade him enter there,
And wrung my first from out his hair,
And dried my second's string.
And therefore,-(so the urchin swore
By Styx, the fearful river,
And by the shafts his quiver bore,
And by that shining quiver ;)
That lover, aye, shall see my whole
In life's tempestuous heaven;
And, when the lightnings cease to roll,
Shall fix on me his dreaming soul
In the deep calm of even!
My first and second are the lot
Of each delighted guest,
When every sorrow is forgot
At SPENCER's social feast;
But both together form a word
Which, when those hours are passed
We grieve to find, howe'er deferred,
Must be pronounced at last.
8. Morning is beaming o'er brake and bower,
Hark! to the chimes from yonder tower;
Call ye my first from her chamber now
With her snowy veil and her jewelled brow;
Lo! where my second in gorgeous array
Leads from his stable her beautiful bay,
Looking for her as he curvets by
With an arching neck and a glowing eye:
Spread is the banquet and studied the song,
Ranged in neat order the menial throng;
The priest is attending with book and with stole,
And the maidens strew flowers, but where is my
whole?
Look to the hill-is he climbing its side?
Look to the stream—is he crossing its tide?
Out on the false one! he comes not yet!
Lady, forget him—yea, scorn and forget!
9. Though weak to a proverb my first has been
And game is so constantly made of my second,
Yet to hosts without number my whole bade
And the world stood amazed at the beauteous
alliance.
MR. CANNING.
10. My first, the joy of many an ancient dame, From distant climes within my second came; Of thee, my useful whole, each forms a part: Thou art not science, but thou teachest art.
My first expresses power to do,
My second, that 'tis done;
To be my whole is given to few,
And perfectly, to none.
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