The realm of Common Sense, and you
Made promise and considered not
Because you strike a random blow
At what you do not understand,
And beckon with a friendly hand
To something that you do not know,
I hold no speech of your desert,
Nor answer with porrected shield
The wooden weapon that you wield,
But meet you with a cast of dirt.
Dispute with such a thing as you
Twin show to the two-headed calf?
Why, sir, if I repress my laugh,
‘T is more than half the world can do.
Pray, good agrarians, what wrong requiresSuch foul redress? Between you and the squiresAll Ireland’s parted with an even handFor you have all the ire, they all the land.
Sir, if all Senators were such as you,Their hands so crimson and so slender, too,(Shaped to the pocket for commercial work,For literary, fitted to the dirk)So black their hearts, so lily-white their livers,The toga’s touch would give a man the shivers.
And thus addressed them:‘Gentle sirs, from youAbundant counsel I have had, and true:What laws to make to serve the public weal;What laws of Nature’s making to repeal;What old religion is the only true one,And what the greater merit of some new one;What friends of yours my favor have forgot;Which of your enemies against me plot.In…
FITCH _a Pelter of Railrogues_PICKERING _his Partner, an Enemy to Sin_OLD NICK _a General Blackwasher_DEAD CAT _a Missile_ANTIQUE EGG _Another_RAILROGUES, DUMP-CARTERS. NAVVIES and Unassorted SHOVELRY in the Lower Distance_Scene_-The Brink of a Railway Cut, a Mile Deep._Time_-1875.FITCH:Gods! what a steep declivity! BelowI see the lazy dump-carts come and go,Creeping like beetles and about as big.The…
It’s aye the rabble,And I to gabble,And hey! for the tale that is never done.‘Chant, chant, chant!To woo the reluctant vote.I would I were deadAnd my say were saidAnd my song were sung to its ultimate note.‘Stab, stab, stab!Ah! the weapon between my teethI’m sick of the flash of it;See how the slash of itMisses…
And Salomon still would a hero seemIf (Heaven dispel the impossible dream!)He stood in a shroud on the hangman’s trap,His eye burning holes in the black, black cap.And the crowd below would exclaim amain:‘He’s ready to fall for his country again!’
