Macaulay as Poet

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

THE DREAMY rhymer’s measured snore

Falls heavy on our ears no more;

And by long strides are left behind

The dear delights of womankind,

Who wage their battles like their loves,

In satin waistcoats and kid gloves,

And have achieved the crowning work

When they have trussed and skewered a Turk.

Another comes with stouter tread,

And stalks among the statelier dead.

He rushes on, and hails by turns

High-crested Scott, broad-breasted Burns;

And shows the British youth, who ne’er

Will lag behind, what Romans were,

When all the Tuscans and their Lars

Shouted, and shook the towers of Mars.