But who hath eyes to trace the passing wind? In the green thicket of a mossy stone; Or, tumbled from the toadstool's slippery round, O show me, Flora, midst those sweets, the flower Hast thou for these now ventur'd from the shore, No more behold thee turn my watch's key, A dish of tea, like milkpail, on thy head! How chase the mite that bore thy cheese away, And keep the rolling maggot at a bay!" She spoke; but broken accents stopp'd her voice, Soft as the speaking trumpet's mellow noise: She sobb'd a storm, and wip'd her flowing eyes, Which seem'd like two broad suns in misty skies. O squander not thy grief; those tears command To weep upon our cod in Newfoundland: The plenteous pickle shall preserve the fish, And Europe taste thy sorrows in a dish. TO MR. LEMUEL GULLIVER, THE GRATEFUL ADDRESS OF THE UNHAPPY HOUYHNHNMS, NOW IN SLAVERY AND BONDAGE IN ENGLAND. To thee, we wretches of the Houyhnhnm band, Condemn'd to labour in a barbarous land, Return our thanks. Accept our humble lays, And let each grateful Houyhnhnm neigh thy praise. O happy Yahoo, purg'd from human crimes, By thy sweet sojourn in those virtuous climes, Where reign our sires; there, to thy country's shame. Reason, you found, and virtue were the same. Yes, thousands! But in pity to their kind, Which own'd, would all their sires and sons disgrace. You, like the Samian, visit lands unknown, And by their wiser morals mend your own. Thus Orpheus travell❜d to reform his kind, Came back, and tamed the brutes he left behind. You went, you saw, you heard: with virtue fought, Then spread those morals which the Houyhnhnms taught. Our labours here must touch thy generous heart, O would the stars, to ease my bonds, ordain, But if HOUYHNHNM. MARY GULLIVER TO CAPTAIN LEMUEL GULLIVER. AN EPISTLE. [The captain, some time after his return, being retired to Mr. Sympson's in the country, Mrs. Gulliver, apprehending from his late behaviour some estrangement of his affections, writes him the following expostulatory, soothing, and tenderly complaining epistle.] WELCOME, thrice welcome to thy native place! Biddel,1 like thee, might farthest India rove; 1 Name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels. He chang❜d his country, but retain❜d his love. Not touch me! never neighbour call'd me slut: Some say the devil himself is in that mare: If so, our Dean shall drive him forth by prayer. Some think you mad, some think you are possess'd, That bedlam and clean straw will suit you best. Vain means, alas, this frenzy to appease ! That straw, that straw would heighten the disease. My bed (the scene of all our former joys, Witness two lovely girls, two lovely boys) Alone I press in dreams I call my dear, I stretch my hand; no Gulliver is there! I wake, I rise, and shivering with the frost Search all the house; my Gulliver is lost! Forth in the street I rush with frantic cries; The windows open, all the neighbours rise: "Where sleeps my Gulliver? O tell me where !" The neighbours answer, "With the sorrel mare." At early morn I to the market haste * Name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels. |