226 SELECT POETRY

The butterfly flits round the blossoming tree,
And the cowslip and blue-bell are bent by the hee:
All the creatures that dwell in the forest are gay,
And why should not I be as merry as they ?
Miss Mitford.

 

NAPOLEON AND THE YOUNG ENGLISH
SAILOR.

1 LOVE contemplating—apart

From all his homicidal' glory—

The traits that soften to our heart
Napoleon’s story.

’Twas when his banners at Boulogne

Armed in our island every freeman,

His navy chanced to capture one
Poor British seaman.

They suffered him, I know not how,
Unprisoned on the shore to roam ;
And aye was bent his youthful brow
On England’s home.
His eye, methinks, pursued the flight
Of birds to Britain, half-way over,
With envy—they could reach the white,
Dear cliffs of Dover.
A stormy midnight watch, he thought,
Than this sojourn would have been dearer,
If but the storm his vessel brought
To England nearer

1 Homicidal—mankilling, murderous.