Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/581

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Epigrams.
563

The Distinction.

At a public school, by chance there were two lads
Of the same name, but boasting different dads.
One's father kept a tavern, famed for cheer,
The other's was 'ycleped an auctioneer:
Mistakes to end, their schoolfellows so knowing,
Called the one, quaintly, coming, t'other going.

On a Miser named More.

Iron was his chest,
Iron was his door;
His hand was iron,
And his heart was More.

Crime.

It is enough for crime to once begin,
One fall (error) is sure to draw another sin:
Honour is like an isle with craggy shore,
Deserted once—we enter there no more.

On Seeing a Fly Burned in a Lamp.

See how around the glowing flame
The giddy insect flies,
Till, fluttering on with fatal aim,
It drops, at last it dies.

Just so, in pleasure's sultry maze,
The victim courts his doom;
Awhile he wantons in the blaze,
Then sinks into the tomb.

His All!

A bailiff once, a sentimental man,
To seize a cobbler went, and thus began:
"Depart, I must have all."
"If that's the case, thou stupid fool,"
The cobbler said, and handing him a tool,
"Depart, thou hast my awl."

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