Page:Poems Sigourney, 1834.pdf/96

And sweet 'twas to see their light footsteps advance
Like the wing of the breeze through the maze of the dance;
But the Monk's-hood scowled dark, and in utterance low,
Declared "'twas high time for good Christians to go;
He'd heard from his parson a sermon sublime,
Where he proved from the Vulgate—to dance was a crime."
So folding a cowl round his cynical head,
He took from the side-board a bumper and fled.
    A song was desired, but each musical flower
Had "taken a cold, and 'twas out of her power;"
Till sufficiently urged, they burst forth in a strain
Of quavers and thrills that astonished the train.
Mimosa sat shrinking, and said with a sigh—
"'Twas so fine, she was ready with rapture to die:"
And Cactus, the grammar-school tutor, declared
"It might be with the gamut of Orpheus compared:"
But Night-shade, the metaphysician, complained
That "the nerves of his ears were excessively pained;
'Twas but seldom he crept from the college, he said,
And he wished himself safe in his study or bed."
    There were pictures whose splendour illumined the place,
Which Flora had finished with exquisite grace:
She had dipped her free pencil in Nature's pure dies,
And Aurora re-touched with fresh purple the skies.
So the grave connoisseurs hasted near them to draw,
Their knowledge to show by detecting a flaw.
The Carnation took her eye-glass from her waist,
And pronounced they were "scarce in good keeping or taste."
While prim Fleur de Lis, in her robe of French silk,
And magnificent Calla, with mantle like milk,
Of the Louvre recited a wonderful tale,
And said "Guido's rich tints made dame Nature turn pale."
Mr. Snowball assented, proceeding to add
His opinion that "all Nature's colouring was bad;"
He had thought so e'er since a few days he had spent
To study the paintings of Rome, as he went