Winter's cooler, summer's warmer, Speech-bewrangler, headlong-bringer, Sinews-robber, worth-depriver, Vile seducer, joy dispeller, Peace-disturber, blackguard guest; Brain-distractor, hateful pest. Utterance-boggler, stench-emitter, Pain-inflicter, eyes-inflamer, Heart corrupter, folly's nurse; Secret-babbler, body-maimer, Thrift-defeater, loathsome curse. Wit-destroyer, joy-impairer, Scandal-dealer, foul-mouthed scourge; Senses-blunter, youth-ensnarer, Crime-inventor, ruin's verge. Virtue-blaster, base deceiver, Spite-displayer, sot's delight; Noise-exciter, stomach-heaver, Falsehood-spreader, scorpion's bite. Quarrel-plotter, rage discharger, Giant-conqueror, wasteful sway; THE YOUNG WIDOW. Chin-carbuncler, tongue-enlarger, Tempest-scatterer, window-smasher, THE YOUNG WIDOW. HE is modest, but not bashful, SHE Free and easy, but not bold; She has studied human nature, As the mistress of the heart; Are you sad? How very serious You old fossils nearly fifty Who are plotting, deep, and wise, 267 268 THE CRUTCH IN THE CORNER. You Adonises of twenty, With the lovelocks in your eyes, Who can win and fool you all. 66 THE CRUTCH IN THE CORNER. HY, Billy, your room is as cold as the hut We had by the swamp and the river, "WE Where we lost our Major, and Tim, you know, "Well, Tom, old fellow, 'tis hard enough, 66 There's nary a stick of wood in the house, But that crutch in the corner yonder. 'Sorry I 'listed? Don't ask me that, Tom; I'd aim a gun with this aching stump, At the foe, were he brother or stranger. Forever doom a poor fellow to want, With that ar in the corner yonder? "That crutch, old comrade, ought ever to be And brag o'er the wine of the fights that brought "And Charley: he goes to some place up town— All well enough for a hungry boy; THE LAUNCHING OF THE SHIP. I'd sooner have kicked the bucket twice o'er, "There's nary a thing for to pawn or sell, "I can raise this arm that's left to me, And swear by the throne of the Father, there, That the hand I lost and the hand I have, "Do I ask too much when I say, we boys, Now that the danger is past and gone, In comfort should tell our story. How should we have fought when the mad shells screamed And shivered our ranks, I wonder, Had we known that our lot would have been to beg 269 THE LAUNCHING OF THE SHIP.-H. W. LONGFELLOW. ALL is finished, and at length -Has come the bridal day Of beauty and of strength. He waits impatient for his bride. With her foot upon the sands, Decked with flags and streamers gay, In honor of her marriage-day, Her snow-white signals, fluttering, blending. Round her like a veil descending, Ready to be The bride of the gray old sea. Then the Master, With a gesture of command, Waved his hand; And at the word, Loud and sudden there was heard, All around them and below, The sound of hammers, blow on blow, Knocking away the shores and spurs. She starts! she moves! she seems to feel And, spurning with her foot the ground, She leaps into the ocean's arms! |