In peals of thunder now she roars,
She gently whimpers like a lowing cow:
Yet lovely in her sorrow still appears :
Her locks dishevell'd, and her flood of tears,
Seem like the lofty barn of some rich swain,
When from the thatch drips fast a shower of rain.
In vain she search'd each cranny of the house,
Each gaping chink, impervious to a mouse.
"Was it for this (she cried) with daily care
Within thy reach I set the vinegar,
And fill'd the cruet with the acid tide,
While pepper-water worms thy bait supplied;
Where twin'd the silver eel around thy hook,
And all the little monsters of the brook!
Sure in that lake he dropt; my Grilly's drown'd!"
She dragg'd the cruet, but no Grildrig found.
"Vain is thy courage, Grilly, vain thy boast!
But little creatures enterprise the most.
Trembling I've seen thee dare the kitten's paw,
Nay, mix with children, as they play'd at taw,
Nor fear the marbles as they bounding flew ;
Marbles to them, but rolling rocks to you!
"Why did I trust thee with that giddy youth? Who from a page can ever learn the truth? Vers'd in court tricks, that money-loving boy To some lord's daughter sold the living toy; Or rent him limb from limb in cruel play, As children tear the wings of flies away. From place to place o'er Brobdingnag I'll roam, And never will return, or bring thee home.
But who hath eyes to trace the passing wind?
How then thy fairy footsteps can I find?
Dost thou bewilder'd wander all alone
In the green thicket of a mossy stone;
Or, tumbled from the toadstool's slippery round,
Perhaps, all maim'd, lie groveling on the ground?
Dost thou, embosom'd in the lovely rose,
Or, sunk within the peach's down, repose?
Within the kingcup if thy limbs are spread,
Or in the golden cowslip's velvet head,
O show me, Flora, midst those sweets, the flower
Where sleeps my Grildrig in the fragrant bower.
“But ah! I fear thy little fancy roves
On little females, and on little loves;
Thy pigmy children, and thy tiny spouse,
The baby playthings that adorn thy house,
Doors, windows, chimneys, and the spacious rooms,
Equal in size to cells of honeycombs:
Hast thou for these now ventur'd from the shore,
Thy bark a beanshell, and a straw thy oar?
Or in thy box now bounding on the main,
Shall I ne'er bear thyself and house again
And shall I set thee on my hand no more,
To see thee leap the lines, and traverse o'er
My spacious palm; of stature scarce a span ̧
Mimic the actions of a real man?
No more behold thee turn my watch's key,
As seamen at a capstan anchors weigh?
How wert thou wont to walk with cautious tread,
A dish of tea, like milkpail, on thy head
How chase the mite that bore thy cheese away, And keep the rolling maggot at a bay!"
She spoke; but broken accents stopp'd her voice, Soft as the speaking trumpet's mellow noise: She sobb'd a storm, and wip'd her flowing eyes, Which seem'd like two broad suns in misty skies. O squander not thy grief; those tears command To weep upon our cod in Newfoundland : The plenteous pickle shall preserve the fish, And Europe taste thy sorrows in a dish.
TO MR. LEMUEL GULLIVER,
THE GRATEFUL ADDRESS OF THE UNHAPPY HOUYHNHNMS, NOW IN SLAVERY AND BONDAGE IN ENGLAND.
To thee, we wretches of the Houyhnhnm band, Condemn'd to labour in a barbarous land, Return our thanks. Accept our humble lays, And let each grateful Houyhnhnm neigh thy praise.
O happy Yahoo, purg'd from human crimes, By thy sweet sojourn in those virtuous climes, Where reign our sires; there, to thy country's shame.
Reason, you found, and virtue were the same. Their precepts razed the prejudice of youth, And even a Yahoo learn'd the love of truth. Art thou the first who did the coast explore; Did never Yahoo tread that ground before?
Yes, thousands! But in pity to their kind,
Or sway'd by envy, or through pride of mind,
They hid their knowledge of a nobler race,
Which own'd, would all their sires and sons disgrace.
You, like the Samian, visit lands unknown, And by their wiser morals mend your own. Thus Orpheus travell❜d to reform his kind, Came back, and tamed the brutes he left behind. You went, you saw, you heard: with virtue
Then spread those morals which the Houyhnhnms taught.
Our labours here must touch thy generous heart,
To see us strain before the coach and cart;
Compell'd to run each knavish jockey's heat!
Subservient to Newmarket's annual cheat!
With what reluctance do we lawyers bear,
To fleece their country clients twice a year ?
Or manag'd in your schools, for fops to ride,
How foam, how fret beneath a load of pride!
Yes, we are slaves-but yet, by reason's force,
Have learn'd to bear misfortune, like a horse.
O would the stars, to ease my bonds, ordain,
That gentle Gulliver might guide my rein?
Safe would I bear him to his journey's end,
For 'tis a pleasure to support a friend.
But if my life be doom'd to serve the bad,
O! mayst thou never want an easy pad!
MARY GULLIVER TO CAPTAIN LEMUEL
[The captain, some time after his return, being retired to Mr. Sympson's in the country, Mrs. Gulliver, apprehending from his late behaviour some estrangement of his affections, writes him the following expostulatory, soothing, and tenderly complaining epistle.]
WELCOME, thrice welcome to thy native place!
What, touch me not? what, shun a wife's embrace?
Have I for this thy tedious absence borne,
And wak'd, and wish'd whole nights for thy return?
In five long years I took no second spouse;
What Redriff wife so long hath kept her vows?
Your eyes, your nose, inconstancy betray;
Your nose you stop, your eyes you turn away.
'Tis said, that thou shouldst "cleave unto thy wife;"
Once thou didst cleave, and I could cleave for life.
Hear, and relent! hark how thy children moan!
Be kind at least to these; they are thy own:
Behold, and count them all; secure to find
The honest number that you left behind.
See how they pat thee with their pretty paws:
Why start you? are they snakes? or have they claws?
Thy Christian seed, our mutual flesh and bone:
Be kind at least to these; they are thy own.
Biddel,1 like thee, might farthest India rove; 1 Name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.
|