from Canto I

211

I think that with this holy new alliance
     I may ensure the public, and defy
All other magazines of art or science,
     Daily, or monthly, or three monthly; I
Have not essay’d to multiply their clients,
     Because they tell me ‘twere in vain to try,
And that the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly
Treat a dissenting author very martyrly.

212

“Non ego hoc ferrem calida juventa
    Consule Planco,” Horace said, and so
Say I; by which quotation there is meant a
     Hint that some six or seven good years ago
(Long ere I dreamt of dating from the Brenta)
     I was most ready to return a blow,
And would not brook at all this sort of thing
In my hot youth—when George the Third was King.

213

But now at thirty years my hair is gray—
     (I wonder what it will be like at forty?
I thought of a peruke the other day)
     My heart is not much greener; and, in short, I
Have squander’d my whole summer while ‘twas May.
     And feel no more the spirit to retort; I
Have spent my life, both interest and principal,
And deem not, what I deem’d, my soul invincible.

214

No more—no more—Oh! never more on me
     The freshness of the heart can fall like dew,
Which out of all the lovely things we see
     Extracts emotions beautiful and new,
Hived in our bosoms like the bag o’ the bee:
     Think’st thou the honey with those objects grew?
Alas! ‘twas not in them, but in thy power
To double even the sweetness of a flower.

215

No more—no more—Oh! never more, my heart,
     Canst thou be my sole world, my universe!
Once all in all, but now a thing apart,
     Thou canst not be my blessing or my curse:
The illusion’s gone for ever, and thou art
    Insensible, I trust, but none the worse,
And in thy stead I’ve got a deal of judgment,
Though heaven knows how it ever found a lodgement.

216

My days of love are over, me no more
     The charms of maid, wife, and still less of widow,
Can make the fool of which they made before,
     In short, I must not lead the life I did do;
The credulous hope of mutual minds is o’er,
     The copious use of claret is forbid too,
So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,
I think I must take up with avarice.

217

Ambition was my idol, which was broken
     Before the shrines of Sorrow and of Pleasure;
And the two last have left me many a token
     O’er which reflection may be made at leisure:
Now, like Friar Bacon’s brazen head, I’ve spoken,
    “Time is, Time was, Time’s past,” a chymic treasure
Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes—
My heart in passion, and my head on rhymes.

218

What is the end of fame? ‘tis but to fill
     A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
     Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour;
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
     And bards burn what they call their “midnight taper,”
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.

219

What are the hopes of man? old Egypt’s King
    Cheops erected the first pyramid
And largest, thinking it was just the thing
     To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid;
But somebody or other rummaging,
    Burglariously broke his coffin’s lid:
Let not a monument give you or me hopes,
Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops.

220

But I being fond of true philosophy,
     Say very often to myself, “Alas!
All things that have been born were born to die,
     And flesh (which Death mows down to hay) is grass;
You’ve pass’d your youth not so unpleasantly,
     And if you had it o’er again—’twould pass—
So thank your stars that matters are no worse,
And read your Bible, sir, and mind your purse.”