"----mixtumque genus, prolesque biformis."--VIRG., _Æn._, vi. Kangaroo, Kangaroo! Thou spirit of Australia, That redeems from utter failure, From perfect desolation, And warrants the creation Of this fifth part of the earth, Which would seem an after-birth, Not conceiv'd in the beginning (For God bless'd his work at first, And saw that it was good), But emerg'd at the first sinning, When the ground was therefore curst;-- And hence this barren wood! Kangaroo, Kangaroo! Tho' at first sight we should say, In thy nature that there may Contradiction be involv'd, Yet, like discord well resolv'd, It is quickly harmoniz'd. Sphynx or mermaid realiz'd, Or centaur unfabulous, Would scarce be more prodigious, [Or labyrinthine minotaur With which great Theseus did war,] Or Pegasus poetical, Or hippogriff--chimeras all! But, what Nature would compile, Nature knows to reconcile; And Wisdom, ever at her side, Of all her children's justified. She had made the squirrel fragile; She had made the bounding hart; But a third so strong and agile Was beyond ev'n Nature's art. So she join'd the former two In thee, Kangaroo! To describe thee, it is hard: Converse of the camélopard, Which beginneth camel-wise, But endeth of the panther size, Thy fore half, it would appear, Had belong'd to "some small deer," Such as liveth in a tree; By thy hinder, thou should'st be A large animal of chase, Bounding o'er the forest's space;-- Join'd by some divine mistake, None but Nature's hand can make-- Nature, in her wisdom's play, On Creation's holiday. For howso'er anomalous, Thou yet art not incongruous, Repugnant or preposterous. Better-proportion'd animal, More graceful or ethereal, Was never follow'd by the hound, With fifty steps to thy one bound. Thou canst not be amended: no; Be as thou art; thou best art so. When sooty swans are once more rare, And duck-moles[39] the museum's care, Be still the glory of this land, Happiest work of finest hand! [39] The _cygnus niger_ of Juvenal is no _rara avis_ in Australia; and time has here given ample proof of the _ornithorynchus paradoxus_. [Barron Field's note.] IV.--KEATS' "LAMIA" (1820) LAMIA, ISABELLA, THE EVE OF SAINT AGNES, AND OTHER POEMS. BY JOHN KEATS. AUTHOR OF _ENDYMION_ A casement high and triple-arch'd there was, All garlanded with carven imag'ries Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass, And diamonded with panes of quaint device, Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes, As are the tiger-moth's deep damask'd wings; And in the midst, 'mong thousand heraldries, And twilight saints, and dim emblazonings, A shield'd scutcheon blush'd with blood of Queens and Kings.