AT THE END OF THE YEAR.

To a Friend,

Do you remember how we sat,
We two, in this same room together
Last year, and talked of this and that,
And warmed our toes and cursed the weather?

And dreamed of fame, and puffed a cloud
(We both smoked briars, I remember),
And sipped our whiskey hot, and vowed
To do or die ere next December?

We spoke without respect of BEN,
BEN who was ploughed, or very nearly;
_Now_ BEN bamboozles jurymen,
And makes his thousand guineas yearly.

We both despised the wretched JOE,
My fag at school, your butt at College.
Dull, elephantine, pompous, slow,
Choked with absurdly useful knowledge.

Yet JOE assists to give us laws,
Speaks in the House, and shows his fat form,
'Midst empty thunders of applause,
Erect on many a Tory platform.

And poor, inconsequential JACK,