FOR THE PORT FOLIO. BULLETIN MOUSIAD. Arma muremque cano.-Virgil. WHERE swells the proud Danube, let armies engage, Who slaughters battalions, like turkeys and pullets, Of Aspern and Wagram, and such horrid names, A mouse, in a cellar, with ladies at war; Whose fur was as smooth, as their garments of silk ; And whose phiz was white-wash'd in a pitcher of milk. As, by échelon, march'd, the light parlor brigade- A batt'ry of butter protected his rear, On his flanks, the steep sides of the firkin appear: Thus strongly entrench'd, á la mode de souris, Not amazons fam'd, for their contests and wars; Y E'er fought with more valor, than glow'd in the band, Who sounded the charge, with their carvers in handGreat Mars, with his joy, shook the sides of the house, And lady Bellona encouraged the mouse, When cutting and slashing, Eve's heroine daughters, The mouse kept his station, like any archduke, But his centre gave way, and he plung'd in the stream, The damsels stood trembling, appall'd by the shot, This fact ascertain'd, with new ardor they rise, The belles, though as brave as the canoniz'd Joan, For ne'er did a battle such ardor display, New-York. E. FOR THE PORT FOLIO. TO MARY. HAD I thought that another would taste Had I thought that the rose of thy lip, I would never have vow'd to be true, Nor have sworn that I thought thee so fair, Would o'erwhelm me with grief and despair. But return to me, Mary! no more; Since your faith you can never restore, The altar of love, once profan'd, Has lost its attractions divine, And the heart with inconstancy stain'd, PHILARIO. VARIETY. WITH the variation of a single word in Dryden's translation of one of the satires of Persius, the Roman poet's description of the merchant adventurer to the East in his time is strictly applicable to many a voyager now : The thrifty merchants, led by lucre, run To the parched Indies and the rising sun, THE different pursuits of man are tolerably hit off in a rough sketch by a great master. One bribes for high preferments in the state, Rots, like a doddard oak, and falls to ground. In the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, the poets and men of learning in general could scarcely lay aside the idiom of Rome when writing for the press. Dryden affects many latinisms in his vigorous verse. In the following couplets the reader will find an example, and we will not say that it is a very faulty one. This innovation in style seems to be justified by the example and authority of Dr. Johnson. The high-shoed ploughman, should he quit the land, Artless of stars, and of the moving sand, The gods would leave him to the waves and wind, And think all shame was lost in human kind. -- IN the mythology of the pagans we read of the single-eyed, or as others say, of the squinting priestess of the goddess Isis. Dryden, translating from an old poet, who alludes to some of the superstitions of his country, introduces a strange word to the confusion of grammarians. This uncouth, and we may say ludicrous, epithet is, however, very whimsically descriptive. Now a cracked egg-shell thy sick fancy frights, THE genius of lord Granville has been most honourably acknowedged by lord Chesterfield, in one of the best drawn sketches of the noblemen, his contemporaries. Horace Walpole has very happily crayoned out some of the darker, as well as of the brighter, features of his friend. Portrait of John earl of Granville, by lord Orford. Commanding beauty, smooth'd by cheerful grace, Bold was his language, rapid, glowing, strong, Ambition dealt her flambeau to his hand, But, slightly built, diffus'd no ruin wide. Could laugh the same, and the same stories tell: And drank his bottle, though he miss'd the world. HENRY K. WHITE, a very juvenile bard, endowed with powers not very different from those of CHATTERTON, and remarkably pure from all the faults of that marvellous boy, wrote, at a very early age, the following sublime, beautiful, and pathetic stanzas. They present a very dismal picture of many results from the temperature of genius; but it is apprehended that the poet's representation, however gloomy, will accord with some of the reasonings of the philosopher, and with much of the observation and experience of the physician. GENIUS, AN ODE. MANY there be that through the vale of life By them unheeded carking Care, Green eyed Grief, and dull Despair; Smoothly they pursue their way, With even tenor and with equal breath, But ah! a few there be whom griefs devour, And weeping Wo and Disappointment keen, And self consuming Spleen. And they are Genius' favourites: these Know the thought throned mind to please, And from her fleshy seat to draw To realms where Fancy's golden orbits roll, |