University of Virginia Library

Two Sonnets on a late Soaring Expedition to the Lords.

I.ON SPRING RICE, IN THE CHARACTER OF GANYMEDE.

When, as the poets sing, high-judging Jove
In plenitude of premiership decreed
To give, with grace, his favourite Ganymede
From earth—the lower House—a kindly shove,
In pitchfork fashion, to the House above,
He sent his own brave bird, with hastiest speed,
Upon that noble mission to proceed:
Down swooping from the sky the eagle drove,
And caught the youth, and upward towered again,
Into Jove's court of peers. As fine a flight
Has Rice, the soaring Superficial, ta'en
At Melbourne's bidding. Therefore doth the wight,
In order that his name should be en règle,
Choose Ganymede as type, and write himself Monteagle.

II.ON SPRING RICE, IN THE CHARACTER OF DANIEL O'ROURKE.

But not alone to Ganymede in fame
Is our up-springing statesman like. Another
Proud hero of romance, an Irish brother
(See Crofty Croker), Dan O'Rourke by name,
Has in his flying match done much the same.
Dan, from a dirty bog where he was sticking,
Bothering and sweating, bungling, blundering, kicking
—A mock to all, a thing of jeer and game—
Mounted an eagle, and so reached the moon:
So Spring, all floundering in the dismal mass
Of his Exchequer blundering, hailed the boon
Which his Mount-Eagle sent him in distress.
But better Rice than Rourke has done the trick,
Because John Bull, not he, has played the lunatic.