Caricatures and cartoons -- Great Britain; English wit and humor; English wit and humor, Pictorial
Strolling about from bower to hall,
Love paid Lavinia a morning call.
An hour soon went--she chatted and sang--
He staid--till at last the dinner-bell rang.
He staid, still charm'd; and rather alarm'd,
Lavinia felt she must ask him to stay.
"To tell you the truth," cried the radiant youth,
"I'm here for life, I shall ne'er go away."
Love's fire shot through her in one wild flush,
Till her heart itself might be seen to blush;
Love saw, and finding it faithful and kind,
Exclaim'd, "O Beauty, how long I've been blind!"
More grateful grew he, more fervent she,
More watchful, sensitive, warm, and fond;
So much like light was he to her sight,
She could not trust him a step beyond.
Still more she cherish'd him year by year,
Till at last each joy came tinged with fear;
She fear'd, if he stroll'd where wild flowers meet,
Lest thorns might pierce his delicate feet;
Or a reptile's sting beneath his wing
She fear'd, if he lay in the greenwood asleep;
Or walk'd he awake by the moonlit lake--
In dread of an ague, how would she weep!
She chatted and sang to Love no more,
Lest music and chat should prove "a bore;"
But she hung on his steps wherever he went,
And shut from the chamber the rose's scent.
She slept not a wink, for fear he should think
She dream'd not of Love--so her eyes grew dim;
She took no care of her beautiful hair,
For she could not spare one moment from him.
Love's bright fireside grew dark with doubt,
Yet home was a desert if Love went out;
In vain were his vows, caresses, and sighs;
"O Love," cried the lady, "I've given you eyes!
And ah! should some face of a livelier grace
Than mine ever meet them! Ah! _should_ you stray!"
Love, wearied at last, was in slumber lock'd fast;--
"Those wings!" said the watcher, "he _might_ fly away."
One awful moment! Oh! could she sever
Those wings from Love, he is hers for ever!
With trembling hand she gathers the wings--
She clips--they are off! and up Love springs.
"Adieu!" he cried, as he leapt from her side,
"Of folly's cup you have drunk the dregs;
My home was here; it is now with the deer;
Thank Venus, though wingless, _Love has legs!_" L. B.
BERNARD CAVANAGH,
THE IRISH CAMELEON.
Bernard Cavanagh is the name of a person who is now raising
considerable sums of money in Dublin by professing to work
miracles--the greatest of them all consisting in his ability to
live without any food whatever--which he is now said to have done
for several months. Crowds flock to him to be cured of their
lameness, deafness, &c.--_Irish Papers._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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