 | Terrible tractoration, and other poems |  |
207
HORACE SURPASSED.
How funny 'tis, when pretty lads and lasses
Meet altogether, just to have a caper,
And the black fiddler plays you such a tune as
Sets you a frisking.
Meet altogether, just to have a caper,
And the black fiddler plays you such a tune as
Sets you a frisking.
High bucks and ladies, standing in a row all,
Make finer show than troops of continentals.
Balance and foot it, rigadoon and chasse,
Brimful of rapture.
Make finer show than troops of continentals.
Balance and foot it, rigadoon and chasse,
Brimful of rapture.
Thus poets tell us how one Mister Orpheus
Led a rude forest to a contra-dance, and
Play'd the brisk tune of Yankee Doodle on a
New Holland fiddle.
Led a rude forest to a contra-dance, and
Play'd the brisk tune of Yankee Doodle on a
New Holland fiddle.
Spruce our gallants are, essenced with pomatum,
Heads powder'd white as Killington-Peak snow-storm;
Ladies, how brilliant, fascinating creatures,
All silk and muslin!
Heads powder'd white as Killington-Peak snow-storm;
Ladies, how brilliant, fascinating creatures,
All silk and muslin!
208
But now behold a sad reverse of fortune,
Life's brightest scenes are checker'd with disaster,
Clumsy Charles Clumpfoot treads on Tabby's gown, and
Tears all the tail off!
Life's brightest scenes are checker'd with disaster,
Clumsy Charles Clumpfoot treads on Tabby's gown, and
Tears all the tail off!
Stop, stop the fiddler, all away this racket—
Hartshorn and water! See the ladies fainting,
Paler than primrose, fluttering about like
Pigeons affrighted!
Hartshorn and water! See the ladies fainting,
Paler than primrose, fluttering about like
Pigeons affrighted!
Not such the turmoil, when the sturdy farmer
Sees turbid whirlwinds beat his oats and rye down,
And the rude hail-stones, big as pistol-bullets,
Dash in his windows!
Sees turbid whirlwinds beat his oats and rye down,
And the rude hail-stones, big as pistol-bullets,
Dash in his windows!
Willy Wagnimble dancing with Flirtilla,
Almost as light as air-balloon inflated,
Rigadoons round her, 'till the lady's heart is
Forced to surrender.
Almost as light as air-balloon inflated,
Rigadoons round her, 'till the lady's heart is
Forced to surrender.
Benny Bamboozle cuts the drollest capers,
Just like a camel, or a hippopot'mus,
Jolly Jack Jumble makes as big a rout as
Forty Dutch horses!
Just like a camel, or a hippopot'mus,
Jolly Jack Jumble makes as big a rout as
Forty Dutch horses!
209
See Angelina lead the mazy dance down,
Never did fairy trip it so fantastic;
How my heart flutters, while my tongue pronounces
Sweet little seraph!
Never did fairy trip it so fantastic;
How my heart flutters, while my tongue pronounces
Sweet little seraph!
Such are the joys, that flow from contra-dancing,
Pure as the primal happiness of Eden,
Love, mirth, and music, kindle in accordance
Raptures extatic.
Pure as the primal happiness of Eden,
Love, mirth, and music, kindle in accordance
Raptures extatic.
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