AFTER BYRON THE ROUT OF BELGRAVIA HE Belgravians came down on the Queen in her hold, THE And their costumes were gleaming with purple and gold, And the sheen of their jewels was like stars on the sea, As their chariots rolled proudly down Piccadill-ee. Like the leaves of Le Follet when summer is green, That host four hours later was tattered and torn. For the rush of the crowd, which was eager and vast, Had rumpled and ruined and wrecked as it passed ; And the eyes of the wearer waxed angry in haste, As a dress but once worn was dragged out at the waist. And there lay the feather and fan side by side, And there were odd gauntlets and pieces of hair; And fragments of back-combs and slippers were there; And the gay were all silent, their mirth was all hushed, Whilst the dewdrops stood out on the brows of the crushed. And the dames of Belgravia were loud in their wail, And the matrons of Mayfair all took up the tale; And they vow as they hurry unnerved from the scene, That it's no trifling matter to call on the Queen. Jon Duan. D A GRIEVANCE EAR Mr. Editor: I wish to say If you will not be angry at my writing it But I've been used, since childhood's happy day, When I have thought of something, to inditing it; I seldom think of things; and, by the way, Which is not what one always is in verse. I used to know a man, such things befall The observant wayfarer through Fate's domain He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again; I know that statement's not original; What statement is, since Shakespere? or, since Cain, What murder? I believe 't was Shakespere said it, or Perhaps it may have been your Fighting Editor. Though why an Editor should fight, or why For me to solve with any sort of credit. And, if he did not, Lewis Morris may (Or even if he did). Some other day, When I have nothing pressing to impart, I should not mind dilating on this matter. I feel its import both in head and heart, And always did,—especially the latter. I could discuss it in the busy mart Or on the lonely housetop; hold! this chatter Diverts me from my purpose. To the point : The time, as Hamlet said, is out of joint, And perhaps I was born to set it right, Have always taken very great delight In such pursuits since first I read divinity. What's Eton but a nursery of wrong-righters, A sharpener of the sword as of the pen; A factory of orators and fighters, A forcing-house of genius? Now and then The world at large shrinks back, abashed and beaten, Unable to endure the glare of Eton. I think I said I knew a man: what then? But who this man was, what, if aught, he did, ago. F. K. Stephen. AFTER CHARLES WOLFE THE BURIAL OF THE BACHELOR N° OT a laugh was heard, not a frivolous note, As the bachelor went to be married. We married him quickly that morning bright, No useless nosegay adorned his chest, Not in chains but in laws we bound him; And he looked like a bridegroom trying his best To look used to the scene around him. Few and small were the fees it cost, And we spoke not a word of sorrow, We thought as we hurried him home to be fed, That the weather looked very like squalls overhead |