IV.-PULLING THE WIRES;

OR THE CROWD AT A PUPPET-SHOW.

(MARCH, 1848.)

I.

GAZE, ye crowd of happy idlers,
Gaze upon it, girls and boys;
Here is life to charm your fancy,
Mimic show of griefs and joys.
Paper queens and tinsel princes,
Pasteboard monarchs play their part;
While you laugh, admire, or pity,
Seeing Nature, and not art.
Little think you as ye wonder,
As each enters, struts, retires,
That they are but wooden playthings,
Senseless puppets, moved by wires.

II.

Screened from sight, behind the curtain,
Cunning fingers work the show;

At whose touch the unconscious figures
Stand or tumble-come or go.
When hereafter, men and women,

Ye shall mingle in the strife,
Busy actors in the tumult
And perplexity of life-

You will find the world divided (Or be blinder than your sires)

"Twixt the puppets, great and little, And the pullers of the wires.

III.

When you see a fool acquiring
Name and station and respect,
And a supple-sinewed cringer
Walking stedfast and erect;
When you see a silly monarch
At an opera-dancer's fect,
And the opera-dancer braving
Mobs and factions in the street;
Ask yourselves behind what curtain
Stand the men whose high desires
Set the little dolls in motion,
And whose fingers pull the wires.

IV.

When you see an able statesman,
Trained to love and do the right,
Acting like a stubborn maniac-
Deaf to reason, blind to light ;
When you see a hoary monarch,
Taught in Fortune's roughest school,
Scorning all his own experience,
And becoming knave or fool;

Ask if Fate, or those who work it,
Shaping meaner men's desires,
Stand behind to play the showman
To these puppets of the wires.

V.

When you see a greedy rabble
Crowding to the public way,
Scenting plunder in disorder,
As the raven scents his prey,
Moved at once by nobler motives,
Scorning pillage as a shame,
Overturning thrones and systems,
All for freedom, all for fame ;-
Give not these the only credit,
Millions plod, while one aspires,
High ambitions work behind them,
Clever fingers pull the wires.

VI.

When you see that daily drama,

Goodness drawn into a snare,

Genius yoked to drudgery's waggon,

Virtue driven to despair,

Innocence betrayed to ruin,

Youth inveigled into vice,
And the blind man unsuspecting

Led, to stumble on the ice;

།

Sigh that good men's prayers and efforts

Cannot quench the base desires,
Cannot stay the ruthless fingers

Of the villains at the wires.

VII.

Watch the show, and learn the lesson,
That with men and mortal things
He alone is truly potent

Who can guide and work the springs.
Learn how great to curb the vicious,
Help the weak, the sinking save;
Learn how mean to be a puppet,

Misdirected by a knave.

Learn to look behind the curtain ;

Wisest he that still inquires,

When he acts for self or others,

Whose the hand that pulls the wires.

V.-THE COURTSHIP OF ANARCHY.

(JUNE, 1848.)

I.

SAID Anarchy to Liberty,

'Divinest maid, whom all adore,

Great is the love I bear to thee,

Come to my arms for evermore;

my

Come to my arms and share

throne;

shall own,

Smile by my side supremely sweet,

And all the world our sway

And lay their homage at our feet."

II.

Said Liberty to Anarchy,

"With reeking gore thy fingers drip, Through blood thou 'st waded to the knee, And curses quiver on thy lip;

Thy heart o'erflows with guile and wrath, With wicked hate, with senseless fears, And groans and misery track thy path; Begone-and leave me to my tears."

III.

Said Anarchy to Liberty,

"Reproach me not, O maiden fair; If I have sinned, 't was love of thee Impelled my spirit to despair,

And thou, of all the world, should'st look
Indulgent on such love sublime;

Thine eyes were inspiration's book—
Thy witchery drove me into crime."

IV.

Said Liberty to Anarchy,

"I never looked upon thy face

Without a sense of misery,

Without a feeling of disgrace;