On the broad of my back floating free, floating free! On the broad of my back floating free, floating free! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! ha! With the lodging-house-keepers all day on the bite, And the insects I spoke of as hungry at night, With the organs "_Dog-traying_" and "_Bobbing Around_," And extra-size Crinolines sweeping the ground, You may think _Mr. Punch_ might be apt to complain That the seaside's but Regent Street over again: But from devils and copy and proof-sheets set free, I've a week to do nothing but bathe in the sea. In steamers and yachts I've been rocked on its breast, And didn't much like it, it must be confessed; But a cosy machine and shoal water give me, And there let me float--let me float and be free! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! ha! (1858) * * * * * THAMES WEATHER Come, George, give your clubs and your Haskells a rest, man: You can't spend the whole of your lifetime in golf; If it pleases your pride I'll admit you're the best man That ever wore scarlet or teed a ball off; I'll allow they can't match you in swinging or driving, That your shots are as long as they always are true, And I'll grant that what others effect after striving For years on the green comes by nature to you. [Illustration] But the sun's in the sky, and the leaves are a-shiver With a soft bit of breeze that is cool to the brow; And I seem to remember a jolly old river Which is smiling all over--I think you know how. There are whispers of welcome from rushes and sedge there, There's a blaze of laburnum and lilac and may; There are lawns of close grass sloping down to the edge there; You can lie there and lounge there and dream there to-day. There are great spreading chestnuts all ranged in their arches With their pinnacled blossoms so pink and so white; There are rugged old oaks, there are tender young larches, There are willows, cool willows, to chequer the light. Each tree seems to ask you to come and be shaded-- It's a way they all have, these adorable trees-- And the leaves all invite you to float down unaided In your broad-bottomed punt and to rest at your ease. And then, when we're tired of the _dolce far niente_, We'll remember our skill in the grandest of sports, Imagine we're back at the great age of twenty, And change our long clothes for a zephyr and shorts. And so, with a zest that no time can diminish, We will sit in our boat and get forward and dare, As we grip the beginning and hold out the finish, To smite the Thames furrows afloat in a pair. * * * * *