Here is an excellent little exercise for patient or quick-witted solvers:—
I’m free to-day, the old sire said,
O no cell now have I to dread;
For this one happy day to me
Are glen and hill and forest free.
I, if I will, can ride, or fish,
A pit can enter, if I wish,
In search of chalk or sand.
In peace alone I now can dine,
And sing to Anna’s lute at nine,
Nor fear a reprimand.
Each word or group of words in italics forms, when the letters are shuffled and recast as an anagram, a military title. Can you decipher them?
178. A CHARADE
My first transposed becomes a name
Which may quite mean be reckoned,
Two syllables combine the same,
With one or two for second.
My whole when fields are fresh and green,
And softly blows the wind,
Where the first signs of spring are seen
Within the woods we find.
179. AN ANAGRAM ENIGMA
Silent long is the wood-bird’s song,
Bare is the woodland bough;
For waving trees in wintry breeze
Have “no buds now.”