LINES TO A STUPID PICTURE "the music of the moon Sleeps in the plain eggs of the nightingale." -AYLMER'S FIELD. FIVE geese, a landscape damp and wild,—— A stunted, not too pretty, child, Beneath a battered gingham; And yet Why should they? Souls of mark Who shall decide where seed is sown? (And what must grow will still increase, Maybe this homely face may hide May hiss (O fluttering Muse of mine!)— Or say the gingham shadows o'er Who shall affirm it ?—who deny ?-- So then-Caps off, my Masters all; Your all-too-hasty strictures; In most unhopeful pictures. A FAIRY TALE "On court, hélas! après la vérité; Ah! croyez-moi, l'erreur a son mérite." -VOLTAIRE. CURLED in a maze of dolls and bricks, I find Miss Mary, ætat six, Blonde, blue-eyed, frank, capricious, Absorbed in her first fairy book, From which she scarce can pause to look, Because it's "so delicious!" "Such marvels, too. A wondrous Boat, In which they cross a magic Moat, That's smooth as glass to row onA Cat that brings all kinds of things; And see, the Queen has angel wingsThen OGRE comes "-and so on. What trash it is! How sad to find (Dear Moralist!) the childish mind, Rejecting themes in which you mix In merest prudence men should teach Are painful contradictions; That science ranks as monstrous things Two pairs of upper limbs; so wings— E'en angels' wings!-are fictions; That there's no giant now but Steam; Why, no; I did a thing far wiser, though,- TO A CHILD (FROM THE "GARLAND OF RACHEL") WOW shall I sing you, Child, for whom Or how the only tone assume What rocks there are on either hand! You should grow up with quite a grand How shall I then be shamed, undone, Your eyes must greet that luckless One Who o'er your "helpless cradle" bent, And twanged his tiresome instrument |