By the strength of rabid ranting reason’s now defied.
Lest perchance your reckoning, with good manners mar your verse
Halt and hearken lords of language, who would plump your purse
Be not tied by taste’s restrictions; learn to howl and curse!
Where we stand of slang to come, scarce falls a sprinkling spray
But the wave of Billingsgate that’s coming who shall stay?
Spread your sails my budding bardlets,—up and rail away!
Punch, August 30, 1884.
It was formerly a frequent theme of Mr. Swinburne’s political verse, this violent abuse of the House of Lords:—
“They are worthy to reign o’er their brothers,