Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/473

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE OLD BACHELOR.
455
When the poor stupid husband is weary and starving,
Anatomy leads them to give up the carving;
And we drudges the shoulder of mutton must buy,
While they study the line of the os humeri.

If we 'scape from our troubles to take a short nap,
We awake with a din about limestone and trap;
And the fire is extinguished past regeneration,
For the women are wrapped in the deep-coal formation.

'Tis an impious thing that the wives of the laymen
Should use pagan words 'bout a pistil and stamen;
Let the heir break his head while they foster a dahlia,
And the babe die of pap while they talk of mammalia.

The first son becomes half a fool in reality,
While the mother is watching his large ideality;
And the girl roars unchecked, quite a moral abortion,
For we trust her benevolence, order, and caution.

I sigh for the good times of sewing and spinning,
Ere this new tree of knowledge had set them a-sinning;
The women are mad, and they'll build female colleges,
So here's to plain English!—a plague on their 'ologies!

The Old Bachelor.
When I was a schoolboy, aged ten,
Oh! mighty little Greek I knew;
With my short striped trousers, and, now and then,
With stripes upon my jacket too.
When I saw other boys to the playground run,
I threw my old gradus by;
And I left the task I had scarce begun—
"There'll be time enough for that," said I.

When I was at college, my pride was dress,
And my groom, and my bit of blood,
But as for my study, I must confess,
That I was content with my stud.
I was deep in my tradesmen's books, I'm afraid,
Though not in my own, by-the-by;
When clamorous creditors came to be paid,
"There'll be time enough for that," said I.