Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Hunting the Hare.

The thistly lawn; the thick entangled broom ;
Of the same friendly hue, the withered fern;
The fallow ground laid open to the sun,
Concoctive; and the nodding sandy bank,
Hung o'er the mazes of the mountain brook.
Vain is her best precaution; though she sits
Concealed, with folded ears; unsleeping eyes,
By Nature raised to take the horizon in ;
And head couched close betwixt her hairy feet,
In act to spring away. The scented dew
Betrays her early labyrinth; and deep,

In scattered sullen openings, far behind,
With every breeze she hears the coming storm.
But nearer and more frequent, as it loads
The sighing gale, she springs amazed, and all
The savage soul of game is up at once:
The pack full opening, various; the shrill horn
Resounded from the hills; the neighing steed,
'Wild for the chase; and the loud hunter's shout:
O'er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all
Mixed in mad tumult, and discordant joy.

405

410

415

420

425

430

The stag, too, singled from the herd, where long He ranged the branching monarch of the shades, Before the tempest drives. At first, in speed, He, sprightly, puts his faith; and roused by fear, Gives all his swift aërial soul to flight; Against the breeze he darts, that way the more To leave the lessening murderous cry behind : Deception short! though fleeter than the winds Blown o'er the keen-aired mountain by the north, He bursts the thickets, glances through the glades, 435 And plunges deep into the wildest wood; If slow, yet sure, adhesive to the track

Hunting the Stag.

Hot-steaming, up behind him come again
The inhuman rout, and from the shady depth
Expel him, circling through his every shift.

He

sweeps the forest oft; and sobbing sees
The glades, mild opening to the golden day;
Where in kind contest with his butting friends
He wont to struggle, or his loves enjoy.
Oft in the full-descending flood he tries
To lose the scent, and lave his burning sides:

440

445

Oft seeks the herd; the watchful herd, alarmed,

With selfish care avoid a brother's woe.

What shall he do? His once so vivid nerves,

So full of buoyant spirit, now no more
Inspire the course; but fainting breathless toil,
Sick, seizes on his heart: he stands at bay;
And puts his last weak refuge in despair.
The big round tears run down his dappled face;
He groans in anguish ; while the growling pack,
Blood-happy, hang at his fair jutting chest,
And mark his beauteous checkered sides with gore.
Of this enough. But if the sylvan youth,

Whose fervent blood boils into violence,
Must have the chase; behold, despising flight,
The roused-up lion, resolute, and slow,
Advancing full on the portended spear,
And coward-band, that circling wheel aloof.
Slunk from the cavern, and the troubled wood,
See the grim wolf; on him his shaggy foe
Vindictive fix, and let the ruffian die :
Or, growling horrid, as the brindled boar

Grins fell destruction, to the monster's heart

Let the dart lighten from the nervous arm.

450

455

460

465

These Britain knows not; give, ye Britons, then 470

Fox Chase.

Your sportive fury, pitiless, to pour

Loose on the nightly robber of the fold:

Him, from his craggy winding haunts unearthed,
Let all the thunder of the chase pursue.

Throw the broad ditch behind you; o'er the hedge
High-bound, resistless; nor the deep morass
Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness
Pick your nice way; into the perilous flood
Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full;
And as you ride the torrent, to the bank's
Your triumph sound sonorous, running round,

480

From rock to rock, in circling echoes tost;

Then scale the mountains to their woody tops;

Rush down the dangerous steep; and o'er the lawn,
In fancy swallowing up the space between,
Pour all your speed into the rapid game.

485

For happy he who tops the wheeling chase;
Has every maze evolved, and every guile

Disclosed; who knows the merits of the pack ;
Who saw the villain seized, and dying hard,
Without complaint, though by an hundred mouths
Relentless torn: O glorious he, beyond
His daring peers! when the retreating horn
Calls them to ghostly halls of grey renown,
With woodland honours graced; the fox's fur,
Depending decent from the roof; and spread
Round the drear walls, with antic figures fierce,
The stag's large front: he then is loudest heard,
When the night staggers with severer toils,
With feats Thessalian Centaurs never knew,
And their repeated wonders shake the dome.

But first the fuel'd chimney blazes wide;

490

495

500

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

The tankards foam ; and the strong table groans
Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretched immense
From side to side; in which, with desperate knife, 505
They deep incision make, and talk the while
Of England's glory, ne'er to be defaced
While hence they borrow vigour or amain
Into the pasty plunged, at intervals,
If stomach keen can intervals allow,
Relating all the glories of the chase.

Then sated Hunger bids his brother Thirst-
Produce the mighty bowl; the mighty bowl,

Swelled high with fiery juice, steams liberal round
A potent gale, delicious, as the breath
Of Maia to the love-sick shepherdess,
On violets diffused, while soft she hears
Her panting shepherd stealing to her arms.
Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn,
Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat
Of thirty years; and now his honest front
Flames in the light refulgent, not afraid

Even with the vineyards best produce to vię.
To cheat the thirsty moments, whist a while

510

515

.5.20

Walks his dull round beneath a cloud of smoke,

525

Wreathed, fragrant, from the pipe; or the quick dice,

In thunder leaping from the box, awake

The sounding gammon while romp-loving miss
Is hauled about, in gallantry robust.

At last these puling idlenesses laid
Aside, frequent and full, the dry divan
Close in firm circle; and set, ardent, in

For serious drinking. Nor evasion sly,

Nor sober shift, is to the puking wretch

530

Drinking.

Indulged apart; but earnest, brimming bowls
Lave every soul, the table floating round,
And pavement, faithless to the fuddled foot.
Thus as they swim in mutual swill, the talk,
Vociferous at once from twenty tongues,

535

Reels fast from theme to theme; from horses, hounds, 540 To church or mistress, politics or ghost,

In endless mazes, intricate, perplexed.

Meantime, with sudden interruption, loud,

The impatient catch bursts from the joyous heart;

That moment touched is every kindred soul :

545

And opening in a full-mouthed Cry of joy,

The laugh, the slap, the jocund curse go round ;

While from their slumbers shook, the kennel'd hounds
Mix in the music of the day again.

As when the tempest, that has vexed the deep
The dark night long, with fainter murmurs falls,
So gradual sinks their mirth. Their feeble tongues,
Unable to take up the cumbrous word,

550

Lie quite dissolved. Before their maudlin eyes,

555

Seen dim, and blue, the double tapers dance,
Like the sun wading through the misty sky.
Then, sliding soft, they drop. Confused above,
Glasses and bottles, pipes and gazetteers,

As if the table even itself was drunk,
Lie a wet broken scene; and wide, below,

560

Is heaped the social slaughter; where astride

The lubber Power in filthy triumph sits,
Slumbrous, inclining still from side to side,

And steeps them drenched in potent sleep till morn.
Perhaps some doctor, of tremendous paunch,

Awful and deep, a black abyss of drink,

565

« ZurückWeiter »