Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/100

 Burn down the doors that very minute,

And fire the house with Blasio in it!

This bright suggestion without more question

Is hailed with readiest acquiescence,

And flying heels the fact reveals

As down the slums and ghauts they scuttle

To fetch combustibles and put all

In instant practice, and thus the fact is

After this sudden effervescence,

The street is left as bare and emptied

As was the soul the demons tempted,

When all the seven fiends took to horse

With seven as horsey, lewd, vicious, saucy,

Their seven lewd selves to reinforce,

Within its halls set up their stables,

And on smug virtue turn the tables.

of the Epic order high

The ways of Heaven to men would try

Like advocates to justify:

Know all of this world and the other,

Primed their defects, your doubts to smother,

And bring you back to faith again.

Mine being the mock heroic vein,

Hoisted few feet o’er pig and plain,

A humbler task affronts my pen

That cautious gropes from line to line

To prove divine as stars that shine

The works of men to one another.

And here a fine occasion offers