XX. So Dan, by dint of noise, obtains a peace, This keeps, and that decays, when duly soak'd in brine. XXI. Now all is hush'd, and, with a look profound, But watered it, alas! with warm fraternal blood. XXII. Anon, he turns to that Homeric war, How Troy was sieged like Londonderry town; Dragged mighty Hector with a bloody crown: And so, of parish rights, was, all his days, forlorn. XXIII. Anon, through old Mythology he goes, Beheld St. Peter, with his holy keys, And own'd their love was naught, and bow'd to Popc, Whilst all their purblind race in Pagan mist did grope. XXIV. From such quaint themes he turns, at last, aside, To new philosophies, that still are green, And shows what rail-roads have been track'd to guide The wheels of great political machine; If English corn should grow abroad, I ween, And gold be made of gold, or paper sheet: How many pigs be born to each spalpeen; And ah! how man shall thrive beyond his meat,With twenty souls alive, to one square sod of peat ! XXV. Here, he makes an end; and all the fry of youth, That stood around with serious look intense, And whether any fruits shall spring from thence, It is a thing, God wot! that can be told by none. XXVI. Now by the creeping shadows of the noon, All blythe and boisterous,—but leave two more, To weep, whilst all their mates in merry sunshine bask. XXVII. Like sportive Elfins, on the verdant sod, With tender moss so sleekly overgrown, That doth not hurt, but kiss, the sole unshod, So soothly kind is Erin to her own! And one, at Hare and Hound, plays all alone,— And, with shillelah small, break one another's brow! XXVIII. But careful Dominie, with ceaseless thrift, But, first of all, with tender hand doth shift Or plucks the fragrant leek for pottage green, With that crisp curly herb, call'd Kale in Aberdeen. XXIX. And so he wisely spends the fruitful hours, Or rules in Learning's hall, or trims her bow'rs ;- Of Cam and Isis; for, alack! at each There dwells, I wot, some dronish Dominie, That does no garden work, nor yet doth teach, But wears a floury head, and talks in flow'ry speech! |