FOUR CHARADES. [A]
Reading edition
FOUR CHARADES. [A]
By C. P. Cranch.
I.
When swiftly in my first you glide along, Naught ruffles up the temper of your mind; All goes as smoothly as a summer song, All objects flit beside you like the wind.
But if you should be stopped in your career, And forced to linger when you fain would fly, You’ll leave my first, and, very much I fear, Will fall into my second speedily.
Till in some snug and comfortable room Your friends receive you as a welcome guest, You’ll own that Winter’s robbed of half his gloom, When on my whole your feet in slippers rest.
II.
my first.
I sunder friends, yet give to laws A place to stand and plead their cause. Though justice and sobriety Still find their safest ground in me, I spread temptation in man’s way, And rob and ruin every day.
my second.
Success and power are in my name, Men strive for me far more than fame. One thing I am unto the wise, But quite another in fools’ eyes, Through me the world is rich and strong, Yet too much love of me is wrong.
my whole.
My first and second when they meet, As lawyers’ fees, my whole complete. And yet my first too oft enjoyed, Is sure to make my second void. My whole is good and bad by turns, As every merchant daily learns.
III.
My first the stout Hibernian wields On banks and streets and stubborn fields, To earn the bread that labor yields.
My second is a name for one Whose youth and age together run, A leader all good people shun.
My whole in summer-time is sweet, When youths and maids together meet Beneath some shady grove’s retreat.
(So simple is this short charade, That I am very much afraid You’ll guess at once, without my aid.)
IV.
When I was a little boy, how welcome was my first; When tired of play I went to bed, my lessons all rehearsed. How soundly all the night I slept, without a care or sorrow, And waked when sunshine lit the room, and robins sang good-morrow.
When I was a little boy, what joy it was to see My second waiting at the door for Willy and for me; And how we trotted off to bring ripe apples from the farm, And piled our bags on Nellie’s back, nor felt the least alarm.
But when I was a little boy, I had an ugly dream, A huge black bear was in my bed, I gave a dreadful scream, And roused the house; they brought in lights, and put my whole to flight, Since then I made a vow to eat no supper late at night.