Verses and Translations   By: Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884)

Contents:

VISIONS. GEMINI AND VIRGO. "THERE STANDS A CITY" STRIKING. VOICES OF THE NIGHT. LINES SUGGESTED BY THE 14TH OF FEBRUARY. A, B, C. TO MRS. GOODCHILD. ODE 'ON A DISTANT PROSPECT' OF MAKING A FORTUNE. ISABEL. DIRGE. LINES SUGGESTED BY THE 14TH OF FEBRUARY. "HIC VIR, HIC EST" BEER. ODE TO TOBACCO. DOVER TO MUNICH. CHARADES. PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. TRANSLATIONS: LYCIDAS. IN MEMORIAM. LAURA MATILDA'S DIRGE. "LEAVES HAVE THEIR TIME TO FALL." "LET US TURN HITHERWARD OUR BARK." CARMEN SAECULARE. TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. TO A SHIP. TO VIRGIL. TO THE FOUNTAIN OF BANDUSIA. TO IBYCUS'S WIFE. SORACTE. TO LEUCONOE. JUNO'S SPEECH. TO A FAUN. TO LYCE. TO HIS SLAVE. TRANSLATIONS: FROM VIRGIL FROM THEOCRITUS. SPEECH OF AJAX. FROM LUCRETIUS. FROM HOMER.

VISIONS.

"She was a phantom," &c.

In lone Glenartney's thickets lies couched the lordly stag, The dreaming terrier's tail forgets its customary wag; And plodding ploughmen's weary steps insensibly grow quicker, As broadening casements light them on towards home, or home brewed liquor.

It is (in fact) the evening that pure and pleasant time, When stars break into splendour, and poets into rhyme; When in the glass of Memory the forms of loved ones shine And when, of course, Miss Goodchild's is prominent in mine.

Miss Goodchild! Julia Goodchild! how graciously you smiled Upon my childish passion once, yourself a fair haired child: When I was (no doubt) profiting by Dr. Crabb's instruction, And sent those streaky lollipops home for your fairy suction!

"She wore" her natural "roses, the night when first we met" Her golden hair was gleaming 'neath the coercive net: "Her brow was like the snawdrift," her step was like Queen Mab's, And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at Crabb's.

The parlour boarder chasseed tow'rds her on graceful limb; The onyx decked his bosom but her smiles were not for him: With ME she danced till drowsily her eyes "began to blink," And I brought raisin wine, and said, "Drink, pretty creature, drink!"

And evermore, when winter comes in his garb of snows, And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he grows; Shall I with that soft hand in mine enact ideal Lancers, And dream I hear demure remarks, and make impassioned answers:

I know that never, never may her love for me return At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised concern But ever shall I bless that day: (I don't bless, as a rule, The days I spent at "Dr. Crabb's Preparatory School.")

And yet we two MAY meet again (Be still, my throbbing heart!) Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and raspberry tart: One night I saw a vision 'Twas when musk roses bloom I stood WE stood upon a rug, in a sumptuous dining room:

One hand clasped hers one easily reposed upon my hip And "BLESS YE!" burst abruptly from Mr. Goodchild's lip: I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an answering gleam My heart beat wildly and I woke, and lo! it was a dream.

GEMINI AND VIRGO.

Some vast amount of years ago, Ere all my youth had vanished from me, A boy it was my lot to know, Whom his familiar friends called Tommy.

I love to gaze upon a child; A young bud bursting into blossom; Artless, as Eve yet unbeguiled, And agile as a young opossum:

And such was he. A calm browed lad, Yet mad, at moments, as a hatter: Why hatters as a race are mad I never knew, nor does it matter.

He was what nurses call a 'limb;' One of those small misguided creatures, Who, though their intellects are dim, Are one too many for their teachers:

And, if you asked of him to say What twice 10 was, or 3 times 7, He'd glance (in quite a placid way) From heaven to earth, from earth to heaven: