VERSICLES.

"Here follow some versicles which I made one sleepless night."Letter to Thomas Moore.

I READ the "Christabel;'
Very well:

I read the "Missionary;”
Pretty-very:

I tried at "Ilderim;"
Ahem!

I read a sheet of "Margret of Anjou,”
Can you?

I turn'd a page of * *› "'s "Waterloo;"

Pooh! pooh!

I look'd at Wordsworth's milk-white "Rylstone Doe?" Hillo! &c. &c. &c.

TO MR. MURRAY.

1.

To hook the reader, you, John Murray,
Have publish'd "Anjou's Margaret,'
Which won't be sold off in a hurry

(At least, it has not been as yet);
And then, still further to bewilder 'em,
Without remorse you set up "Ilderim ;"
So mind you don't get into debt,

Because as how, if you should fail,
These books would be but baddish bail.

2.

And mind you do not let escape

These rhymes to Morning Post or Perry,
Which would be very treacherous-very,

And get me into such a scrape!

For, firstly, I should have to sally,

All in my little boat, against a Galley;

And, should I chance to slay the Assyrian wight,
Have next to combat with the female knight.

*

*

*

*

ON THE BIRTH OF JOHN WILLIAM RIZZO HOPPNER *.

His father's sense, his mother's grace,

In him, I hope, will always fit so;
With (still to keep him in good case)
The health and appetite of Rizzo.

* These lines are in no other respect remarkable than that they were thought worthy of being metrically translated into no less than ten different languages; namely, Greek, Latin, Italian (also in Venetian dialect), German, French, Spanish, Illyrian, Hebrew, Armenian, and Samaritan. The original lines, with the different versions above mentioned, were printed, in a small neat volume, in the seminary of Padua.-Moore's Life, vol. ii. p. 164.

EPIGRAM.

FROM THE FRENCH OF RULHIERES..

IF, for silver or for gold,

You could melt ten thousand pimples
Into half a dozen dimples,

Then your face we might behold,

Looking, doubtless, much more snugly;
Yet even then 'twould be d-

-d ugly.

EPIGRAM ON HIS WEDDING-DAY.

JANUARY 2, 1820.

TO-DAY it is my wedding-day,
And all the folks would stare
If wife should dine at Edmonton
And I should dine at Ware.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

HERE's a happy new year! but with reason I beg you'll permit me to say

Wish me many returns of the season,

But as few as you please of the day.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

TO PENELOPE.

January 2, 1821.

THIS day, of all our days, has done
The worst for me and you:-
'Tis just six years since we were one,
And five since we were two.

ENDORSEMENT FOR THE DEED OF SEPARATION IN
THE APRIL OF 1816.

A YEAR ago you swore, fond she!
"To love, to honour," and so forth:
Such was the vow you pledged to me,
And here's exactly what 'tis worth.

EPITAPH FOR WILLIAM PITT.

WITH death doom'd to grapple

Beneath this cold slab, he
Who lied in the Chapel

Now lies in the Abbey.

EPIGRAM.

IN digging up your bones, Tom Paine,

Will Cobbett has done well:

You visit him on earth again,
He'll visit you in hell.

STANZAS.

1.

WHEN a man hath no freedom to fight for at home, Let him combat for that of his neighbours;

Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome, And get knock'd on the head for his labours.

2.

To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,
And is always as nobly requited;

Then battle for freedom wherever you can,
And, if not shot or hang'd, you'll get knighted.

ON HIS THIRTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY.

JANUARY 22, 1821.

THROUGH life's dull road, so dim and dirty,
I have dragg'd to three and thirty.
What have these years left to me?
Nothing-except thirty-three.