University of Virginia Library


85

EVENING; AN ELEGY.

By a Poetical Carman.

Apollo now, Sol's carman, drives his stud
Home to the mews that's seated in the West,
And Customs' clerks, like him, through Thames Street mud,
Now westering wend, in Holland trowsers dress'd.
So from the stands the empty carts are dragg'd,
The horses homeward to their stables go,
And mine, with hauling heavy hogsheads fagg'd,
Prepare to taste the luxury of—“Wo!”

86

Now from the slaughter-houses cattle roar,
Knowing that with the morn their lives they yields,
And Mr. Sweetman's gig is at the door,
To take him to his house in Hackney Fields.
Closed are the gates of the West India Docks,
Rums, Sugars, Coffee, find at length repose,
And I, with other careless carmen, flocks
To the King's Head, the Chequers, or the Rose.
They smoke a pipe—the shepherd's pipe I wakes,
Then skittles pleases—me the Muse invites,
They in their ignorance to drinking takes,
I, bless'd with learning, takes a pen and writes.