"I sat over against a window where there stood a pot with very pretty flowers; and I had my eyes fixed on it, when on a sudden the window opened and a young lady appeared whose beauty struck me."-ARABIAN NIGHTS. ALAS! the flames of an unhappy lover Oh! why are eyes of hazel? noses Grecian! Over the way! I've gazed too often, till my heart's as lost As any needle in a stack of hay: Crosses belong to love, and mine is crossed I cannot read or write, or thoughts relax- Even on Sunday my devotions vary, And from St. Bennet Fink they go astray Oh! if my godmother were but a fairy, I envy everything that's near Miss Lindo, A pug, a poll, a squirrel or a jay Blest blue-bottles! that buzz about the window Even at even, for there be no shutters, I see her reading on from grave to gay, And then-oh! then-while the clear waxen taper Emits, two stories high, a starlike ray, I see twelve auburn curls put into paper But how breathe unto her my deep regards, Cold as the pole she is to my adoring- Over the way! Each dirty little Savoyard that dances She looks on-Punch-or chimney sweeps in May; Half out she leans to watch a tumbling brat, But I'm in love-she never pities that! Over the way! I go to the same church-a love-lost labour; Haunt all her walks, and dodge her at the play; She does not seem to know she has a neighbour Over the way! At private theatres she never acts; No Crown-and-Anchor balls her fancy sway; Over the way! To billets-doux by post she shows no favour- To break my window-pains to my enslaver I play the flute-she heeds not my chromatics- I wish a fire would break out in the attics Over the way! My wasted form ought of itself to touch her; My baker feels my appetite decay; And as for butchers' meat-oh! she's my At beef I turn; at lamb or veal I pout; butcher I'm weary of my life; without regret Over the way! I've fitted bullets to my pistol-bore; I've vowed at times to rush where trumpets bray, Sometimes my fancy builds up castles airy, ! Sometimes I dream of her in bridal white, Standing before the altar, like a fay; I've coo'd with her in dreams, like any turtle, I've snatch'd her from the Clyde, the Tweed, and Tay; Thrice I have made a grove of that one myrtle Thrice I have rowed her in a fairy shallop, Thrice raced to Gretna in a neat "poshay," And showered crowns to make the horses gallop And thrice I've started up from dreams appalling Of killing rivals in a bloody fray— There is a young man very fond of calling Over the way! Oh! happy man-above all kings in glory, And add a tale of love to that one story Nabob of Arcot-Despot of Japan- Over the way! With such a lot my heart would be in clover- In a morning paper justly celebrated for the acuteness of its reporters, and their almost prophetic insight into character and motives-the Rhodian length of their leaps towards results, and the magnitude of their inferences, beyond the drawing of Meux's dray horses, there appeared, a few days since, the following paragraph. |