Scant tribute to your worth, when first ye stood
Before me, robed in broadcloth and brocade,
And all the nameless grace of Beadle-hood!
I would not smile at ye—if smile I could,
Now as erewhile, ere I had learned to sigh;
Ah, no! I know ye beautiful and good,
And evermore will pause as I pass by,
And gaze, and gazing think, how base a thing am I.
From Fly Leaves, by C. S. Calverley.
Bell and Sons, London, 1878.
Mr. Calverley also wrote, when quite a young man, some most amusing Byronic stanzas (in Don Juan style), in praise of