THE ELDEST son bestrides him, | |
| And the pretty daughter rides him, | |
| And I meet him oft o’ mornings on the Course; | |
| And there kindles in my bosom | |
| An emotion chill and gruesome | 5 |
| As I canter past the Undertaker’s Horse. | |
| |
| Neither shies he nor is restive, | |
| But a hideously suggestive | |
| Trot, professional and placid, he affects; | |
| And the cadence of his hoof-beats | 10 |
| To my mind this grim reproof beats:— | |
| “Mend your pace, my friend, I’m coming. Who’s the next?” | |
| |
| Ah! stud-bred of ill-omen, | |
| I have watched the strongest go—men | |
| Of pith and might and muscle—at your heels, | 15 |
| Down the plantain-bordered highway, | |
| (Heaven send it ne’er be my way!) | |
| In a lacquered box and jetty upon wheels. | |
| |
| Answer, sombre beast and dreary, | |
| Where is Brown, the young, the cheery, | 20 |
| Smith, the pride of all his friends and half the Force? | |
| You were at that last dread dak 1 | |
| We must cover at a walk, | |
| Bring them back to me, O Undertaker’s Horse! | |
| |
| With your mane unhogged and flowing, | 25 |
| And your curious way of going, | |
| And that businesslike black crimping of your tail, | |
| E’en with Beauty on your back, Sir, | |
| Pacing as a lady’s hack, Sir, | |
| What wonder when I meet you I turn pale? | 30 |
| |
| It may be you wait your time, Beast, | |
| Till I write my last bad rhyme, Beast— | |
| Quit the sunlight, cut the rhyming, drop the glass— | |
| Follow after with the others, | |
| Where some dusky heathen smothers | 35 |
| Us with marigolds in lieu of English grass. | |
| |
| Or, perchance, in years to follow, | |
| I shall watch your plump sides hollow, | |
| See Carnifex (gone lame) become a corse— | |
| See old age at last o’erpower you, | 40 |
| And the Station Pack devour you, | |
| I shall chuckle then, O Undertaker’s Horse! | |
| |
| But to insult, jibe, and quest, I’ve | |
| Still the hideously suggestive | |
| Trot that hammers out the unrelenting text, | 45 |
| And I hear it hard behind me | |
| In what place soe’er I find me:— | |
| “’Sure to catch you sooner or later. Who’s the next?” | |
