"Oh, be that roof as lead to lead
Above the dull Restorer's head,
A Minstrel's malison is said!"


Notes explanatory are added to the Rhymes, and their information,
however valuable, need not here be repeated.



A BALLADE OF XXXII BALLADES.



Friend, when you bear a care-dulled eye,
And brow perplexed with things of weight,
And fain would bid some charm untie
The bonds that hold you all too strait,
Behold a solace to your fate,
Wrapped in this cover's china blue;
These ballades fresh and delicate,
This dainty troop of Thirty-two!

The mind, unwearied, longs to fly
And commune with the wise and great;
But that same ether, rare and high,
Which glorifies its worthy mate,
To breath forspent is disparate:
Laughing and light and airy-new