Page:Sibylline Leaves (Coleridge).djvu/106

 Now having faith implicit that he can't err.
 * Hoping his hopes, alarm'd with his alarms;

And now believing him a sly inchanter,
 * Yet still afraid to break his brittle charms,

Lest some mad Devil suddenly unhamp'ring,
 * Slap-dash! the imp should fly off with the steeple,

On revolutionary broom-stick scampering.—
 * O ye soft-headed and soft-hearted people,

If you can stay so long from slumber free,
 * My muse shall make an effort to salute 'e:

For lo! a very dainty simile
 * Flash'd sudden through my brain, and 'twill just suit 'e!

You know that water-fowl that cries. Quack! quack!?
 * Full often have I seen a waggish crew

Fasten the Bird of Wisdom on it's back,
 * The ivy-haunting bird, that cries, Tu-whoo!

Both plunged together in the deep mill-stream,
 * (Mill-stream, or farm-yard pond, or mountain-lake,)

Shrill, as a Church and Constitution scream,
 * ! quoth, and down dives the Drake!