Shapes of Clay Part 24

WOMAN.

Study good women and ignore the rest, For he best knows the s.e.x who knows the best.

INCURABLE.

From pride, joy, hate, greed, melancholy-- From any kind of vice, or folly, Bias, propensity or pa.s.sion That is in prevalence and fashion, Save one, the sufferer or lover May, by the grace of G.o.d, recover: Alone that spiritual tetter, The zeal to make creation better, Glows still immedicably warmer.

Who knows of a reformed reformer?

THE PUN.

Hail, peerless Pun! thou last and best, Most rare and excellent bequest Of dying idiot to the wit He died of, rat-like, in a pit!

Thyself disguised, in many a way Thou let'st thy sudden splendor play, Adorning all where'er it turns, As the revealing bull's-eye burns, Of the dim thief, and plays its trick Upon the lock he means to pick.

Yet sometimes, too, thou dost appear As boldly as a brigadier Tricked out with marks and signs, all o'er, Of rank, brigade, division, corps, To show by every means he can An officer is not a man; Or naked, with a lordly swagger, Proud as a cur without a wagger, Who says: "See simple worth prevail-- All dog, sir--not a bit of tail!"

'T is then men give thee loudest welcome, As if thou wert a soul from h.e.l.l come.

O obvious Pun! thou hast the grace Of skeleton clock without a case-- With all its boweling displayed, And all its organs on parade.

Dear Pun, you're common ground of bliss, Where _Punch_ and I can meet and kiss; Than thee my wit can stoop no low'r-- No higher his does ever soar.

A PARTISAN'S PROTEST.

O statesmen, what would you be at, With torches, flags and bands?

You make me first throw up my hat, And then my hands.

TO NANINE.

Dear, if I never saw your face again; If all the music of your voice were mute As that of a forlorn and broken lute; If only in my dreams I might attain The benediction of your touch, how vain Were Faith to justify the old pursuit Of happiness, or Reason to confute The pessimist philosophy of pain.

Yet Love not altogether is unwise, For still the wind would murmur in the corn, And still the sun would splendor all the mere; And I--I could not, dearest, choose but hear Your voice upon the breeze and see your eyes Shine in the glory of the summer morn.

VICE VERSA.

Down in the state of Maine, the story goes, A woman, to secure a lapsing pension, Married a soldier--though the good Lord knows That very common act scarce calls for mention.

What makes it worthy to be writ and read-- The man she married had been nine hours dead!

Now, marrying a corpse is not an act Familiar to our daily observation, And so I crave her pardon if the fact Suggests this interesting speculation: Should some mischance restore the man to life Would she be then a widow, or a wife?

Let casuists contest the point; I'm not Disposed to grapple with so great a matter.

'T would tie my thinker in a double knot And drive me staring mad as any hatter-- Though I submit that hatters are, in fact, Sane, and all other human beings cracked.

Small thought have I of Destiny or Chance; Luck seems to me the same thing as Intention; In metaphysics I could ne'er advance, And think it of the Devil's own invention.

Enough of joy to know though when I wed I _must_ be married, yet I _may_ be dead.

A BLACK-LIST.

"Resolved that we will post," the tradesmen say, "All names of debtors who do never pay."

"Whose shall be first?" inquires the ready scribe-- "Who are the chiefs of the marauding tribe?"

Lo! high Parna.s.sus, lifting from the plain, Upon his h.o.a.ry peak, a n.o.ble fane!

Within that temple all the names are scrolled Of village bards upon a slab of gold; To that bad eminence, my friend, aspire, And copy thou the Roll of Fame, entire.

Yet not to total shame those names devote, But add in mercy this explaining note: "These cheat because the law makes theft a crime, And they obey all laws but laws of rhyme."

A BEQUEST TO MUSIC.

"Let music flourish!" So he said and died.

Hark! ere he's gone the minstrelsy begins: The symphonies ascend, a swelling tide, Melodious thunders fill the welkin wide-- The grand old lawyers, chinning on their chins!

AUTHORITY.

"Authority, authority!" they shout Whose minds, not large enough to hold a doubt, Some chance opinion ever entertain, By dogma billeted upon their brain.

"Ha!" they exclaim with ch.o.r.eatic glee, "Here's Dabster if you won't give in to me-- Dabster, sir, Dabster, to whom all men look With reverence!" The fellow wrote a book.

It matters not that many another wight Has thought more deeply, could more wisely write On t' other side--that you yourself possess Knowledge where Dabster did but faintly guess.

G.o.d help you if ambitious to persuade The fools who take opinion ready-made And "recognize authorities." Be sure No t.i.ttle of their folly they'll abjure For all that you can say. But write it down, Publish and die and get a great renown-- Faith! how they'll snap it up, misread, misquote, Swear that they had a hand in all you wrote, And ride your fame like monkeys on a goat!