I will sing a holy chant. Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang: He, by custom patriarchal, By the kindly lips he loved. To combine love, song, wine, Who refuses this our Credo, I'd pronounce him heterodox, Banish quick the heretic, Who will not sing as Luther sang, "Who loves not wine, woman, and song, He is a fool his whole life long!" William Makepeace Thackeray [1811-1863] THE LAY OF THE LEVITE THERE is a sound that's dear to me, 2024 Above the roaring of the wind, The exile's song, it thrills among Its sound is strange to English ears, For it hath shook the tented field. And hosts have quailed before the cry O, lose it not! forsake it not. The memory of that solemn sound, The Hebrew shall ye know, So well as by the plaintive cry Even now, perchance, by Jordan's banks, Or Sidon's sunny walls, Where, dial-like, to portion time The palm-tree's shadow falls, The pilgrims, wending on their way, Will linger as they go, And listen to the distant cry Of "Clo!-old Clo!" William Edmondstoune Aytoun [1813-1865] EARLY RISING "God bless the man who first invented sleep!" His great discovery to himself; nor try Yes; bless the man who first invented sleep (I really can't avoid the iteration); But blast the man, with curses loud and deep, Whate'er the rascal's name, or age, or station, Who first invented, and went round advising, That artificial cut-off, Early Rising! -- "Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed," Observes some solemn, sentimental owl; Maxims like these are very cheaply said: The time for honest folks to be abed Is in the morning, if I reason right; Thomson, who sang about the "Seasons," said But then he said it-lying-in his bed, At ten o'clock, A. M.,-the very reason He wrote so charmingly. The simple fact is, 'Tis, doubtless, well to be sometimes awake,Awake to duty, and awake to truth,- But when, alas! a nice review we take Of our best deeds and days, we find, in sooth, The hours that leave the slightest cause to weep Are those we passed in childhood, or asleep! 'Tis beautiful to leave the world awhile For the soft visions of the gentle night; So let us sleep and give the Maker praise. John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887] EL CAPITAN-GENERAL THERE WAS a captain-general who ruled in Vera Cruz, There was a Yankee skipper who round about did roam; His name was Stephen Folger, and Nantucket was his home: And having gone to Vera Cruz, he had been skinned full sore By the Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. But having got away alive, though all his cash was gone, He said, "If there is vengeance, I will surely try it on! And I do wish I may be damned if I don't clear the score With Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador!" He shipped a crew of seventy men-well-armed men were they, And sixty of them in the hold he darkly stowed away; With twenty-five soldados he came on board so pleased, And said, "Maldito Yankee-again your ship is seized. How many sailors have you got?" Said Folger, "Tenmore," To the Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. "But come into my cabin and take a glass of wine. I do suppose, as usual, I'll have to pay a fine: -no I have got some old Madeira, and we'll talk the matter o'erMy Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador." And as over that Madeira the captain-general boozed, To the glass of Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. "What is it makes the vessel roll? What sounds are these I hear? It seems as if the rising waves were beating on my ear!""Oh, it is the breaking of the surf-just that and nothing more, My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador!" The governor was in a sleep which muddled all his brains; The seventy men had got his gang and put them all in chains; And when he woke the following day he could not see the shore, For he was out on the blue water-the Don San Salvador. "Now do you see that yard-arm- and understand the thing?" Said Captain Folger. "For all from that yard-arm you shall swing, Or forty thousand dollars you shall pay me from your store, My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador." The Capitano took a pen-the order he did sign— "O Señor Yankee! but you charge amazing high for wine!" But 'twas not till the draft was paid they let him go ashore, El Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. The greatest sharp some day will find another sharper wit; It always makes the Devil laugh to see a biter bit; It takes two Spaniards any day to come a Yankee o'erEven two like Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. Charles Godfrey Leland [1824-1903] |