Here’s a health to every sportsman, be he stableman or lord,If his heart be true, I care not what his pocket may afford;And may he ever pleasantly each gallant sport pursue,If he takes his liquor fairly, and his fences fairly, too. He cares not for the bubbles of Fortune’s fickle tide,Who like Bendigo can battle, […]

Though I have loved you well, I ween,And you, too, fancied me,Your heart hath too divided beenA constant heart to be.And like the gay and youthful knight,Who loved and rode away,Your fleeting fancy takes a flightWith every fleeting day. So let it be as you propose,Tho’ hard the struggle be;‘Tis fitter far–that goodness knows!–Since we […]

Adieu to kindred hearts and home,To pleasure, joy, and mirth,A fitter foot than mine to roamCould scarcely tread the earth;For they are now so few indeed(Not more than three in all),Who e’er will think of me or heedWhat fate may me befall. For I through pleasure’s paths have runMy headlong goal to win,Nor pleasure’s snares […]

To the Author of “Holmby House” They are rhymes rudely strung with intent lessOf sound than of words,In lands where bright blossoms are scentless,And songless bright birds;Where, with fire and fierce drought on her tresses,Insatiable Summer oppressesSere woodlands and sad wildernesses,And faint flocks and herds. Where in dreariest days, when all dews end,And all winds […]

Through the lattice rushes the south wind, denseWith fumes of the flowery frankincenseFrom hawthorn blossoming thickly;And gold is shower’d on grass unshorn,And poppy-fire on shuddering corn,With May-dew flooded and flush’d with morn,And scented with sweetness sickly. The bloom and brilliance of summer days,The buds that brighten, the fields that blaze,The fruits that ripen and redden,And […]