Seem like the lofty barn of some rich swain, And fill'd the cruet with the acid tide, "Vain is thy courage, Grilly, vain thy boast! But little creatures enterprise the most. Trembling I've seen thee dare the kitten's paw, Nay, mix with children, as they play'd at taw, Nor fear the marbles as they bounding flew ; Marbles to them, but rolling rocks to you! 66 Why did I trust thee with that giddy youth? Who from a page can ever learn the truth? Versed in court-tricks, that money-loving boy To some lord's daughter sold the living toy; Or rent him limb from limb in cruel play, As children tear the wings of flies away. From place to place o'er Brobdingnag I'll roam, And never will return, or bring thee home. But who hath eyes to trace the passing wind? How then thy fairy footsteps can I find? Dost thou bewilder'd wander all alone 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 Where sleeps my Grildrig in the fragrant bower! "But ah! I fear thy little fancy roves On little females, and on little loves; Hast thou for these now ventured from the shore, No more behold thee turn my watch's key, How wert thou wont to walk with cautious tread, A dish of tea, like milkpail, on thy head! She spoke; but broken accents stopp'd her voice, Soft as the speaking-trumpet's mellow noise: She sobb'd a storm, and wiped her flowing eyes, TO MR. LEMUEL GULLIVER, THE GRATEFUL ADDRESS OF THE UNHAPPY HOUYHNHNMS, NOW IN SLAVERY AND BONDAGE IN ENGLAND. [These pieces of Pope are given by Sir Walter Scott in his Life of Swift, with the exception of the present verses, from a Horse; which he observes "do not appear." Swift's Works, vol. xiii. p. 372.] To thee, we wretches of the Houyhnhnm band, O happy Yahoo, purged 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. Art thou the first who did the coast explore; Did never Yahoo tread that ground before? Yes, thousands! But in pity to their kind, Or sway'd by envy, or through pride of mind, They hid their knowledge of a nobler race, 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, That gentle Gulliver might guide my rein! Safe would I bear him to his journey's end, HOUYHNHNM. MARY GULLIVER TO CAPTAIN 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! -What, touch me not? what, shun a wife's embrace? Have I for this thy tedious absènce borne, And waked, and wish'd whole nights for thy return? Your nose you stop, your eyes you turn away. wife;" Once thou didst cleave, and I could cleave for life. Hear, and relent! hark how thy children moan! Be kind at least to these: they are thy own: |