mething like Goldsmith?
Or shall I aspire on
To tune my poetic lyre on
The same key touched by Byron,
And laying my hand its wire on,
With its music your soul set fire on
By themes you ne'er could tire on?
Or say,
I pray,
Would a lay
Like Gay
Be more in your way?
I leave it to you,
Which am I to do?
It plain on the surface is
That any metamorphosis,
To affect your study
You may work on my soul or body.
Your frown or your smile makes me Savage or Gay
In action, as well as in song;
And if 'tis decreed I at length become Gray,
Express but the word and I'm Young;
And if in the Church I should ever aspire
With friars and abbots to cope,
By a nod, if you please, you can make me a Prior--
By a word you render me Pope.
If you'd eat, I'm a Crab; if you'd cut, I'm your Steel,
As sharp as you'd get from the cutler;
I'm your Cotton whene'er you're in want of a reel,
And your livery carry, as Butler.
I'll ever rest your debtor
If you'll answer my first letter;
Or must, alas, eternity
Witness your taciturnity?
Speak--and oh! speak quickly
Or else I shall grow sickly,
And pine,
And whine,
And grow yellow and brown
As e'er was mahogany,
And lie me down
And die in agony.

P.S.--You'll allow I have the gift
To write like the immortal Swift.'

But besides the poetical powers with which he was endowed, in common
with the great Brinsley, Lady Dufferin, and the Hon. Mrs. Norton, young
Sheridan Le Fanu also possessed an irresistible humour and oratorical
gift that, as a student of Old Trinity, made him a formidable rival of
the best of the young debaters of his time at the 'College Historical,'
not a few of whom have since reached the highest eminence at the Irish
Bar, after having long enlivened and charmed St. Stephen's by their wit
and oratory.

Amongst his compeers he was remarkable for his sudden fiery eloquence of
attack, and ready and rapid powers of repartee when on his defence.
But Le Fanu, whose understanding wa