To keep in any English home.”
Yes, though I gave him up with tears
Experience had broke the spell,
And if I live a thousand years,
I’ll never have a young gazelle!
This humorous poem was written by Mr. Walter Parke the dramatist, and author of many skilful and amusing parodies. Lays of the Saintly, by the same gentleman, (Vizetelly and Co., London.) contains the lives of the principal Saints, told in rhymes imitating Swinburne, Tennyson, Longfellow, and other poets. One of the best of these legends is undoubtedly that devoted to the adventures of St. Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland. Most appropriately this is written after Moore’s style, and parodies of a number of his melodies are ingeniously woven into the narrative. Amongst these are “Eveleen’s Bower,” “Love’s Young Dream,” “She is far from the Land,” “Oft in the Stilly night,” “The Harp that Once,” “The Woodpecker,” “Let Erin remember,” and “The Meeting of the Waters.” Perhaps the last is the best imitation of style:—
There’s not in old Ireland an islet more sweet
Than the Isle where the penitents annually meet:
Oh! the last spark of faith from the land must depart