[104]
MY first is often broken, ’t is so frail;
Sometimes it has a head, sometimes a tail;
Lives in the water, worn upon the hand,
Dooms the offender, represents a land.
My last is found on mankind and on brute,
Possessed alike by fish and fowl and fruit.
The daring mariner who seeks the pole,
Failing to find it, may secure my whole.
[105]
A SOLDIER and a sailor met
One day upon the shore;
And one was my first with a coat of my last,
And my whole the other wore.
[106]
MAID of Athens, ere we part,
Hear my first with tender heart;
Ere another hour is past,
Let me be of thee my last.
Then behold my very soul
Filled o’erflowing with my whole.