Poematia Author:James Henry Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BLESSED be the man who first invented chairs! And doubly blessed, the man who beds invented! But blessed above them bo'th and praised for ever, By sick ... more »and well, young, old, and rich and poor, By grave and gay, and ignorant and learned, By lazy and by idle and by tired, And most, by all who love, like me, to loll, The livelong day through, trilling maudlin verses, Th' ingenious man, if man indeed he were And not divine, who first invented thee, Half bed, half chair, delicious, spring-stuffed sofa! Stretched at my ease on thee, I envy not Turkish divan or carpet, kingly throne, Or lectulus of Pliny or Lucullus In Ostian villa or by Pausilippo; Nay, envy scarce the hyacinthine couch From which, half raised upon his elbow, Adam Leaned over Eve, enamoured, kissed her cheek, And bade her waken out of her first sleep And greet a second day in paradise. My Muse's visits I receive on thee, Semi-recumbent, make her sit beside me, And chat and banter with her to no end. On thee I make my toilet, sit on thee And eat and drink,'and stretch me out to sleep. Thou art my bed, my prie-dieu, chair and stool, My bookcase and my cash-drawer and my wardrobe; On thee I 'll live, and when Death, at the last, Comes looking for me, laid on thee he 'll find me, And thou shalt be my coffin and my bier, And share with me the l6ng night of the tomb. Carlsruhe, May 8. 1856. IT 's not on the insect that creeps cautious forward, Or lies without motion as if it were dead, But on the gay flutterer busily buzzing, Dionaea muscipula closes her trap. Take warning, and as the dial's shadow steal cautious Al6ng life's spring-gun and man-trap beset road, Of no higher praise ambitious than, "Nee vixit male Qui natus moriensque fefellit....« less