So much for you, my friend! who own a Church, And would not leave your mother in the lurch! But when a Liberal asks me what I think-- Scared by the blood and soot of Cobbett's ink, And Jeffrey's glairy phlegm and Connor's foam, In search of some safe parable I roam-- An emblem sometimes may comprise a tome! Disclaimant of his uncaught grandsire's mood, I see a tiger lapping kitten's food: And who shall blame him that he purs applause, When brother Brindle pleads the good old cause; And frisks his pretty tail, and half unsheathes his claws! Yet not the less, for modern lights unapt, I trust the bolts and cross-bars of the laws More than the Protestant milk all newly lapt, Impearling a tame wild-cat's whisker'd jaws! 1825, or 1826. ON DONNE'S POETRY With Donne, whose muse on dromedary trots, Wreathe iron pokers into true-love knots; Rhyme's sturdy cripple, fancy's maze and clue, Wit's forge and fire-blast, meaning's press and screw. ?1818. ON A BAD SINGER Swans sing before they die--'twere no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing. NE PLUS ULTRA Sole Positive of Night! Antipathist of Light! Fate's only essence! primal scorpion rod-- The one permitted opposite of God!-- Condensed blackness and abysmal storm Compacted to one sceptre Arms the Grasp enorm-- The Interceptor-- The Substance that still casts the shadow Death!-- The Dragon foul and fell-- The unrevealable, And hidden one, whose breath Gives wind and fuel to the fires of Hell!-- Ah! sole despair Of both the eternities in Heaven! Sole interdict of all-bedewing prayer, The all-compassionate! Save to the Lampads Seven Reveal'd to none of all the Angelic State, Save to the Lampads Seven, That watch the throne of Heaven! ?1826. HUMAN LIFE ON THE DENIAL OF IMMORTALITY