Hours, when the Poet’s words and looks Had yet their native glow: Not yet the fear of little books Had made him talk for show: But, all his vast heart sherris-warm’d, He flash’d his random speeches; Ere days, that deal in ana, swarm’d His literary leeches. So mix for ever with the past, Like all good things on earth! For should I prize thee, couldst thou last, At half thy real worth? I hold it good, good things should pass: With time I will not quarrel: It is but yonder empty glass That makes me maudlin-moral. Head-waiter of the chop-house here, To which I most resort, I too must part: I hold thee dear For this good pint of port. For this, thou shalt from all things suck Marrow of mirth and laughter; And, wheresoe’er thou move, good luck Shall fling her old shoe after. But thou wilt never move from hence, The sphere thy fate allots: Thy latter days increased with pence Go down among the pots: Thou battenest by the greasy gleam In haunts of hungry sinners, Old boxes, larded with the steam Of thirty thousand dinners. _We_ fret, _we_ fume, would shift our skins, Would quarrel with our lot; _Thy_ care is, under polish’d tins, To serve the hot-and-hot; To come and go, and come again, Returning like the pewit, And watch’d by silent gentlemen, That trifle with the cruet. Live long, ere from thy topmost head The thick-set hazel dies; Long, ere the hateful crow shall tread The corners of thine eyes: Live long, nor feel in head or chest Our changeful equinoxes, Till mellow Death, like some late guest, Shall call thee from the boxes. But when he calls, and thou shalt cease To pace the gritted floor, And, laying down an unctuous lease Of life, shalt earn no more; No carved cross-bones, the types of Death, Shall show thee past to Heaven: But carved cross-pipes, and, underneath, A pint-pot neatly graven. [1] 1842 and all previous to 1853. To full and kindly. [2] All previous to 1853:— Like Hezekiah’s, backward runs The shadow of my days. [3] All previous to 1853. Though. [4] The expression is Shakespeare’s, _Twelfth Night_, v., i., “and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges”. [5] All previous to 1853. Though. [6] 1842 to 1843. With motion less or greater. To—— after reading a Life and Letters