Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/522
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THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE.
He beats the hoof, and you are set astride!
Sirrah! get down, and let your father ride."
As Grecian lads were seldom void of grace,
The decent, duteous youth resigned his place.
Then a fresh murmur through the rabble ran;
Boys, girls, wives, widows, all attack the man:
"Sure ne'er was brute so void of nature!
Have you no pity for the pretty creature?
To your young child can you be so unkind?
Here, Luke, Bill, Betty, put the child behind!"
Old dapple next the clowns' compassion claimed:
"'Tis strange those boobies are not quite ashamed!
Two at a time upon a poor dumb beast!
They might as well have carried him at least."
The pair, still pliant to the partial voice,
Dismount and bear the brute. Then what a noise!
Huzzas, loud laughs, low gibe, and bitter joke,
From the yet silent sire these words provoke:
"Proceed, my boy, nor heed their further call;
Vain his attempt who tries to please them all!"
Sirrah! get down, and let your father ride."
As Grecian lads were seldom void of grace,
The decent, duteous youth resigned his place.
Then a fresh murmur through the rabble ran;
Boys, girls, wives, widows, all attack the man:
"Sure ne'er was brute so void of nature!
Have you no pity for the pretty creature?
To your young child can you be so unkind?
Here, Luke, Bill, Betty, put the child behind!"
Old dapple next the clowns' compassion claimed:
"'Tis strange those boobies are not quite ashamed!
Two at a time upon a poor dumb beast!
They might as well have carried him at least."
The pair, still pliant to the partial voice,
Dismount and bear the brute. Then what a noise!
Huzzas, loud laughs, low gibe, and bitter joke,
From the yet silent sire these words provoke:
"Proceed, my boy, nor heed their further call;
Vain his attempt who tries to please them all!"
The Siege of Belgrade.
Probably the most ingenious specimen of alliteration extant.
An Austrian army awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade;
Cossack commanders cannonading come,
Dealing destruction's devastating doom:
Every endeavour engineers essay
For fame, for fortune—fighting furious fray.
Generals 'gainst generals grapple—gracious God!
How honours Heaven heroic hardihood!
Infuriate—indiscriminate in ill,
Kinsmen kill kinsmen—kinsmen kindred kill!
Labour low levels loftiest, longest lines—
Men marsh 'mid mounds, 'mid moles, 'mid murderous mines,
Now noisy noxious numbers notice nought
Of outward obstacles opposing ought;
Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, quickly quarter, quarter 'quest:
Reason returns, religious right resounds,
Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds.
True to the Turkey—triumph to thy train!
Unjust, unwise, unmerciful Ukraine!
Vanish vain victory, victory vanish vain!
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade;
Cossack commanders cannonading come,
Dealing destruction's devastating doom:
Every endeavour engineers essay
For fame, for fortune—fighting furious fray.
Generals 'gainst generals grapple—gracious God!
How honours Heaven heroic hardihood!
Infuriate—indiscriminate in ill,
Kinsmen kill kinsmen—kinsmen kindred kill!
Labour low levels loftiest, longest lines—
Men marsh 'mid mounds, 'mid moles, 'mid murderous mines,
Now noisy noxious numbers notice nought
Of outward obstacles opposing ought;
Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, quickly quarter, quarter 'quest:
Reason returns, religious right resounds,
Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds.
True to the Turkey—triumph to thy train!
Unjust, unwise, unmerciful Ukraine!
Vanish vain victory, victory vanish vain!