II.

If you've seen a short man swagger tow'rds the footlights at Shoreditch, Sing out “Heave aho! my hearties,” and perpetually hitch Up, by an ingenious movement, trousers innocent of brace, Briskly flourishing a cudgel in his pleased companion's face;

If he preluded with hornpipes each successive thing he did, From a sun-browned cheek extracting still an ostentatious quid; And expectorated freely, and occasionally cursed: - Then have you beheld, depicted by a master's hand, MY FIRST.

O my countryman! if ever from thy arm the bolster sped, In thy school-days, with precision at a young companion's head; If‘ twas thine to lodge the marble in the centre of the ring, Or with well-directed pebble make the sitting hen take wing:

Then do thou — each fair May morning, when the blue lake is as glass, And the gossamers are twinkling star-like in the beaded grass; When the mountain-bee is sipping fragrance from the bluebell's lip, And the bathing-woman tells you, Now's your time to take a dip:

When along the misty valleys fieldward winds the lowing herd, And the early worm is being dropped on by the early bird; And Aurora hangs her jewels from the bending rose's cup, And the myriad voice of Nature calls thee to MY SECOND up: -

Hie thee to the breezy common, where the melancholy goose Stalks, and the astonished donkey finds that he is really loose; There amid green fern and furze-bush shalt thou soon MY WHOLE behold, Rising‘ bull-eyed and majestic’ — as Olympus queen of old:

Kneel,— at a respectful distance,— as they kneeled to her, and try With judicious hand to put a ball into that ball-less eye: Till a stiffness seize thy elbows, and the general public wake - Then return, and, clear of conscience, walk into thy well-earned steak.