' » m.W' : Ml.' ," , r LIBRARY UNIVE OF CALI: SAN sGO k. Shelf.. Book2-Q~l'\ D. L. DAVIS, SALEM, OHIO. PR £ "1 jb^^'i'OK^ S^7 T U E POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS HOOD. BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY. 1857. CONTENTS, POEMS. PAGE The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies 15 Hero and Leander ^^ The Elm Tree: A Dream in the Woods 82 The Dream of Eugene Aram 98 lOS The Haunted House : A Romance 119 The Bridge of Sighs The Song of the Shirt 123 The Lady's Dream 126 129 The Workhouse Clock : An Allegory The Lay of the Laborer 132 Fair Ines 135 The Departure of Summer 137 Ode: Autumn 142 1*4 Song, for Music , Ballad 145 Hymn to the Sun 146 Autumn 147 To a cold Beauty 147 Ruth 148 Ballad 149 1 Remember, I Remember 150 Ballad : 151 The Water Lady 152 To an Absentee 153 Song 154 Ode to the Moon 155 To 157 The Forsaken 158 Autumn 159 Ode to Melancholy • 160 (9) 10 CONTENTS. Sonnets, Written in a Volume of Shakspeare 164 To Fancy 164 To an Enthusiast 165 " " It is not death, tliat sometime in a sigh 165 " By every sweet tradition of true hearts" 166 On receiving a Gift 166 Silence 167 " " The curse of Adam, the old curse of all 167 " " Love, dearest lady, such as 1 would speak 168 The Lee Shore 168 The Death-Bed 169 Lines on seeing my Wife and two Children sleeping in the same Chamber 170 To my Daughter, on her Birthday 171 To a Child embracing his. Mother 171 Stanzas .....'.'.'.. 1'. 172 To a False Friend 173 The Poet's Portion 174 Time, Hope, and Memory 175 Song 175 Flowers 176 To 177 To 178 To 179 Serenade 179 Ballad „.^;..^ 180 Sonnets. To the Ocean... ........ ....................^.;............ 180 Lear .^.V... ............................ ...... 181 Sonnet to a Sonnet 181 False Poets and Tiiie .'.ii.y.'.'...i. ...... ..'..'..'.., 182 To .......:.\^m:\^^\[\....::\v.:... .......... 182 For the Fourteenth of February 183 To a Sleeping Child 183 " " The world is with me, and its many cares 184 HUMOROUS POEMS. Miss Kilmansegg and her Precious Leg 187 A Morning Thought 262 Love and Lunacy » 263 Morniiig Meditations , 289 CONTENTS. 11 A Tale of a Trumpet 291 No! 316 The Irish Schoolmaster 316 To 325 Love 326 The Season 327 Faithless Sally Brown : An Old Ballad 328 Bianca's Dream : A Venetian Story 330 Over the Way 339 Epicurean Reminiscences of a Sentimentalist 343 The Carelesse Nurse Mayd 345 Ode to Perry, the Inventor of the Patent Perry an Pen 346 Number One, versified from the Prose of a Young Lady 352 Lines on the Celebration of Peace 354 The Demon-Sliip 355 Spring : A New Version 359 Faithless Nelly Gray : A Pathetic Ballad 361 The Flower 364 The Sea-Spell 364 A Sailor's Apology for Bow-Legs 369 The Bachelor's Dream 371 The Wee Man : A Romance 374 Death's Ramble 376 The Progress of Art 378 A Fairy Tale 382 The Turtles: A Fable 386 Love Lane , 391 Domestic Poems. I. Hymeneal Retrospections 393 " II. The sun was slumbering in the west, my daily labors past" 394 III. A Parental Ode to my Son, aged three Years and five Months 395 IV. A Serenade 397 A Plain Direction 393 Equestrian Courtship 40x An Open Question 402 A Black Job 497 Ode to Rae Wilson, Esquire 415 A Table of Errata 43O A Row at the Oxford Arms 434 Etching Moralized : To a Noble Lady 441 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Clapham Academy 449 12 CONTENTS. A Retrospective Review 453 Fugitive Lines on Pawning my Watch 456 The Brolien Dish 458 Ode to Peace: written on the Niglit of my Mistress's Grand Rout 459 Pompey's Ghost : A Pathetic Ballad 461 Ode to Dr. Hahnemann, the Homoeopathist 464 Ode for St. Cecilia's Eve 46B The Lost Heir 475 Those Evening Bells 480 THE PLEA OP THE MIDSUMMER FAIRIES. (13) TO CHARLES LAMB. re- Mr DEAR Friend : I thank my literary fortune that I am not duced, like many better wits, to barter dedications, for the hope or that promise of patronage, with some nominally great man ; but where true affection points, and honest respect, I am free to gratify my head and heart by a sincere inscription. An intimacy and dear- ness, worthy of a much earlier date than our acquaintance can refer to, direct me at once to your name ; and with this acknowledgment of your oyer kind feeling towards me, I desire to record a respect and admu'ation for you as a writer, which no one acquainted with our literature, save Elia himself, will think disproportionate or misplaced. If I had not these better reasons to govern me, I should be guided to the same selection by your intense yet critical relish for the works of our great Dramatist, and for that favorite play in particular which has furnished the subject of my verses. It is my design, iu tlie following Poem, to celebrate by an allegory that immortality which Shakspearo has conferred on the Fairy my- thology by his Midsummer Night's Dream. But for him, those pretty children of our childhood would leave barely their names to our ma- to the bloom turer years ; they belong, as the mites upon the plum, of fancy, a thing generally too frail and beautiful to withstand the rude handling of Time : but the Poet has made this most perishable part of the mind's creation equal to the most enduring; ho has so intertwined the Elfins with human sympathies, and linked them by that so many delightful associations v/ith the productions of nature, they are as real to the mind's eye as their green magical circles to the outer sense. It would have been a pity for such a race to go extinct, even though and they were but as the butterflies that hover about the leaves blossoms of the visible world. I am, my dear friend. Yours, most truly, T. Hood. (14) THE PLEA OE THE MIDSUMMER EAIRIES. TwAS in tliat mellow season of the year "When the hot Sun singes the yellow leaves a TUl they be gold, and mth broader sphere The Moon looks do\ni on Ceres and her sheaves 5 When more abimdantly the spider weaves, And the cold wind breathes from a chillier clime ; That forth I fared, on one of those stiU eves, Touched with the dewy sadness of the time, To think how the bright months had spent their prime. So that, wherever I addressed my way, I seemed to track the melancholy feet Of him that is the Father of Decay, at once the sour weed and the — And spoils sweet ; Wherefore regretfully I made retreat To some unwasted regions of my brain, Charmed with the Hght of summer and the heat. And bade that bounteous season bloom again, And sprout fresh flowers in mine own domain. It was a shady and sequestered scene. Like those famed gardens of Boccaccio, Planted with his own laurels ever green, (15J 16 THE PLEA OP And roses that for endless summer blow ; And there were fountain springs to overflow and cool arcades Theu" mai'ble basins ; green Of tall o'erarchmg sycamores, to throw their shades Athwart the dappled path dancing j. With timid conies cropping the gx'een blades. And there were crystal pools, peopled with fish. and and some of Argent gold ; — TjTian skin. Some crimson-barred ; and ever at a wish They rose obsequious till the wave grew thin As glass upon their backs, and then dived in, their ardent scales in Quenching watery gloom j. Whilst others with fresh hues rowed forth to wia My changeable regard, — for so we doom Things bom of thought to vanish or to bloonu And there were many bu-ds of many dyes,. From tree to tree still faring to and fro. And stately peacocks with then- splendid eyes,. And gorgeous pheasants with their golden glow» Like Iris just bedabbled in her bow. Besides some vocalists, without a name-. That eft on fairy errands come and go. — and all were With accents magical ; tame,. And pecked at my hand where'er I came. And for my sylvan Gompany,. in lieu Of Parapinea with her lively peers,. Sate Queen Titania with her pretty crew. All in their liveries quaint, with elfin gears y For she was gracious to my childish years. And made me free of her enchanted round ; Wherefore this dreamy scene she still endears^ THE MIDSUMMEE FAIIIIES. IJ a verdant And plants her court upon mound, Fenced with umbrageous woods and groves profound. " " Ah, me," she cries, was ever moonlight seen So clear and tender for omr midnight trips ? Go some one forth, and with a trump convene " ! — the jMy lieges all Away gobHn skips A pace or two apart, and deftly strips The ruddy slun from a sweet rose's cheek, Then blows the shuddering leaf between liis lips, Making it utter forth a shrill small shriek. Like a frayed bu'd in the gray owlet's beaL And, lo ! upon my fixed delighted ken Appeared the loyal Fays. Some by degrees Crept from the primrose buds that opened then. And some from bell-shaped blossoms lilie the bees, Some fi'om the de^ry meads, and rushy leas, chafers the rustics Flew up Uke when pass ; Some fi'om the rivers, others from tall trees silent Dropped, Tike shed blossoms, to the grass, Spuits and elfins small, of every class. Peri and Pixy, and quaint Puck the Antic, Robin that swain Brought Goodfellow, merry ; And stealthy Mab, queen of old realms romantic, Came too, fi-om distance, in her tiny wain, Fresh dripping from a cloud — some bloomy rain, Then circling the bright Moon, had washed her car.