I say--the future is a serious matter--
And so--for God's sake--hock and soda-water!




DEDICATION.[1]

I.

BOB SOUTHEY! You're a poet--Poet-laureate,
And representative of all the race;
Although 't is true that you turned out a Tory at
Last,--yours has lately been a common case;
And now, my Epic Renegade! what are ye at?
With all the Lakers, in and out of place?
A nest of tuneful persons, to my eye
Like "four and twenty Blackbirds in a pye;

II.

"Which pye being opened they began to sing,"
(This old song and new simile holds good),
"A dainty dish to set before the King,"
Or Regent, who admires such kind of food;--
And Coleridge, too, has lately taken wing,
But like a hawk encumbered with his hood,--
Explaining Metaphysics to the nation--
I wish he would explain his Explanation.[2]