PER CONTRA TO BEN WARD’S ELEGY.

Western Star, Issue 871, 16 August 1884, Page 3

PER CONTRA TO BEN WARD’S ELEGY.

[By Flax-bush.]

Ye Groper’s cockatoos draw near, My -welcome song to read, Let smiles your faces cheer Ben Ward is not yet dead.

Ye lofty pines your heads uplift, Let verduo o’er you spread ; Dark Long wood’s fame again he’ll sing Ben Ward is not yet dead.

Ye teasing wights who reign in schools, May hear my song with dread, Again you’ll wince beneath his lash : Ben Ward is not yet dead.

And Dancing Dick, the blockhead great, Who did such falsehood spread, Need not Ids calumny repeat, For Ben is not yet dead.

Ye owlish critics in your lairs, Who oft have dullness fed, May still indulge your scornful airs, When you his rhymes have-read. Although volcanic are the brains That till his cluroscy head, He’ll yet compose some roaring strains, TJn-numhered with the dead.

Still vice that rampant walks the earth, Shall quail beneath his tread; Still worth and honor he’ll exalt: Ben Ward is not yet dead.

And still at Fame’s steep cliff he’ll dash, That o’er him hangs its head; Uncrushed is his ambition rare : Ben Ward is not yet dead!