BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

Askest thou if in my youth I have mounted, as others have mounted,

Galloping Hexameter, Pentameter cantering after,

English by dam and by sire; bit, bridle, and saddlery, English;

English the girths and the shoes; all English from snaffle to crupper;

Everything English around, excepting the tune of the jockey?

Latin and Greek, it is true, I have often attach'd to my phaeton

Early in life, and sometimes have I ordered them out in its evening,

Dusting the linings, and pleas'd to have found them unworn and untarnisht.

Idle! but Idleness looks never better than close upon sunset.