Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/12

 All in vain I shouted “Hold! and

Elsewhere play those skipping jingles

On jest’s cymbal with the sistrum,

That with sting of satire tingles;

For I crave a song whose rhythm

From the soul of beauty brims,

And with purest ore poetic

Choirs enthusiastic hymns.

Thine’s a troop of drolls fantastic,

With their false and foreign spangles.”

“Nay, but o’er our meadows only

Such a charming flower wreath dangles

For the poet and such heroes

In our own domestic runes,

And this fellow must to Bombay

Trudge in search of his buffoons.”

All in vain still thrums the timbrel

Ceaseless hand and foot as pliant,

Moulds the fulsome dance responsive,

And the sparkling eye defiant

Dares me, and the papery pinions

With sham iris colours pearled,

Flirt and buzz round like a night-moth:

“Let us out into the world.”

“Fly then! on thy gummy vans, in-

augurate a furtive Aden,

Leading souls poetic, slily

To thy jungles, legend-laden.