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Seaman: To Mr Alfred Austin
Her petals wide the periwinkle flung;
Blue gentian winked upon unweaned lambs;
And there was quite a pleasant stir among
The cryptogams.
May was the month alike in croft and wild
When—here, in fact, begins the actual tale—
When forth withal there came an infant child,
A healthy male.
Marred was his ruby countenance, as when
A blushing peony is moist with rain;
At first he strenuously kicked, and then
He kicked again.
They put the bays upon his barren crest,
Laid on his lap a lexicon of rhyme,
Saying—'You shall with luck attain the quest
In course of time.'
Stolid he gazed, as one that may not know
The meaning of a presage—or is bored;
But when he loosed his lips it was as though
The sea had roared.
That dreadful summons to a higher place
He would not, if he could, have spurned away;
But, being a babe, he had, in any case,
Nothing to say.
So they continued—' Yes, on you shall fall
The laurels; you shall clamber by-and-by
Where Southey sits, where lately sat withal
The Poet Pye.
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