side With Stella's magisterial pride. Behold a cage with sparrows fill'd, First to be fondled, then be kill'd. Now to this hamper I invite you, With six imagined cares to fright you. Here in this bundle Janus sends Concerns by thousands for your friends. And here's a pair of leathern pokes, To hold your cares for other folks. Here from this barrel you may broach A peck of troubles for a coach. This ball of wax your ears will darken, Still to be curious, never hearken. Lest you the town may have less trouble in Bring all your Quilca's [3] cares to Dublin, For which he sends this empty sack; And so take all upon your back. 

      [Footnote 1: Mrs. Rebecca Dingley, Stella's friend and companion.]       [Footnote 2: The sun god represented with two faces, one in front, and one behind, to whom the new year was sacred.—W. E. B.]       [Footnote 3: Country-house of Dr. Sheridan.] 

  

  

       DINGLEY AND BRENT[1]     

      A SONG To the tune of "Ye Commons and Peers."             Dingley and Brent, Wherever they went, Ne'er minded a word that was spoken; Whatever was said, They ne'er troubled their head, But laugh'd at their own silly joking. Should Solomon wise In majesty rise, And show them his wit and his learning; They never would hear, But turn the deaf ear, As a matter they had no concern in. You tell a good jest, And please all the rest; Comes Dingley, and asks you, what was it? And, curious to know, Away she will go To seek an old rag in the closet.       [Footnote 1: Dr. Swift's housekeeper.] 

  

  

       TO STELLA WRITTEN ON THE DAY OF HER BIRTH     

      MARCH 13, 1723-4, BUT NOT ON THE SUBJECT, WHEN I WAS SICK IN BED Tormented with incessant pains, Can I devise poetic strains? Time was, when I could yearly pay My verse to Stella's native day:      But now unable grown to write, I grieve she ever saw the light. Ungrateful! since to her I owe That I these pains can undergo. She tends me 

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