Foam and Fangs

The foam and the fangs and the flowers,

The raving and ravenous rage
Of a poet as pinion'd in powers

As a condor confined in a cage!
My heart in a haystack I've hidden,
As loving and longing I lie,
Kiss open thine eyelids unbidden-
I gaze and I die!

I've wander'd the wild waste of slaughter,
I've sniffed up the sepulchre's scent,
I've doated on devilry's daughter,

And murmur'd much more than I meant;

I've paused at Penelope's portal,

So strange are the sights that I've seen, And mighty's the mind of the mortal

Who knows what I mean.

545

Walter Parke.

X

NARRATIVE

LITTLE BILLEE

THERE were three sailors of Bristol City
Who took a boat and went to sea,
But first with beef and captain's biscuits,
And pickled pork they loaded she.

There was gorging Jack, and guzzling Jimmy,
And the youngest he was little Billee.
Now when they'd got as far as the Equator
They'd nothing left but one split pea.

Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy, "I am extremely hungaree."

To gorging Jack says guzzling Jimmy, "We've nothing left, us must eat we."

Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,
"With one another we shouldn't agree!
There's little Bill, he's young and tender,
"We're old and tough, so let's eat he."

"O Billy! we're going to kill and eat you,
So undo the button of your chemie."
When Bill received this information,
He used his pocket-handkerchie.

"First let me say my catechism,

Which my poor mother taught to me." "Make haste! make haste!" says guzzling Jimmy, While Jack pulled out his snicker-snee.

The Crystal Palace

Then Bill went up to the main-top-gallant-mast,
And down he fell on his bended knee,

He scarce had come to the Twelfth Commandment
When up he jumps-" There's land I see!"

"Jerusalem and Madagascar,

And North and South Amerikee,
There's the British flag a-riding at anchor,
With Sir Admiral Napier, K.C.B."

So when they got aboard of the Admiral's,
He hanged fat Jack and flogged Jimmee,
But as for little Bill, he made him

The captain of a Seventy-three.

547

W. M. Thackeray.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE

WITH ganial foire
Thransfuse me loyre,

Ye sacred nymphs of Pindus,
The whoile I sing

That wondthrous thing,
The Palace made o' windows!

Say, Paxton, truth,

Thou wondthrous youth,
What sthroke of art celistial,

What power was lint

You to invint

This combineetion cristial.

O would before

That Thomas Moore,
Likewoise the late Lord Boyron,
Thim aigles sthrong

Of godlike song,

Cast oi on that cast oiron!

And saw thim walls,

And glittering halls,
Thim rising slendther columns,

Which I, poor pote,

Could not denote,

No, not in twinty vollums.

My Muse's words

Is like the bird's

That roosts beneath the panes there; Her wings she spoils

'Gainst them bright toiles, And cracks her silly brains there.

This Palace tall,

This Cristial Hall,

Which Imperors might covet,

Stands in High Park

Like Noah's Ark,

A rainbow bint above it.

The towers and fanes,

In other scaynes,

The fame of this will undo,

Saint Paul's big doom,

Saint Payther's, Room.

And Dublin's proud Rotundo.

'Tis here that roams,

As well becomes

Her dignitee and stations,

Victoria Great,

And houlds in state

The Congress of the Nations.

Her subjects pours
From distant shores,

Her Injians and Canajians,
And also we,

Her kingdoms three,

Attind with our allagiance.

The Crystal Palace
Here come likewise

Her bould allies,
Both Asian and Europian;
From East and West

They send their best
To fill her Coornucopean.

I seen (thank Grace!)
This wondthrous place
(His Noble Honour Misther
H. Cole it was

That gave the pass,
And let me see what is there).

With conscious proide

I stud insoide

And look'd the World's Great Fair in,
Until me sight

Was dazzled quite,

And couldn't see for staring.

There's holy saints And window paints, By maydiayval Pugin; Alhamborough Jones

Did paint the tones, Of yellow and gambouge in.

There's fountains there

And crosses fair;
There's water-gods with urrns;
There's organs three,

To play, d'ye see,

"God save the Queen," by turrns.

There's statues bright

Of marble white,

Of silver, and of copper;

And some in zinc,

And some, I think,

That isn't over proper.

549