Select Poetry.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 351, 5 March 1861, Page 4

Select Poetry.

SOLILOQUY BY AN ENSIGN, On reading the " Order" respecting " Whiskers" at

Aldershott.

What ! cut our whiskers off? It Bhall not be I'll not submit to such unjust decree, And shave these tender objects of my pride; My locks 60 killing (when fresh curled and dyed). For flowing whiskers give a manly grace E'en to the plainest and most vulgar face; And mine are so adored by all the fair— My comrades envy, whilst civilians stare. In former days 'twas deemed a dire disgrace For men to wear a closely-shaven face. The spies of old, in Holy Writ, we're shown Tarried in Jericho till their beards were grown: And mighty Sampson, too, lost all hia strength "When once' his hair was cut trae prison-length. So, if my whiskers I'm obliged to lose, I fear my pluck will very quickly ooze (Like Acre's courage) from my finger ends, — I'll hide my face alike from foes and friends. Pope wrote a poem when Belinda fair Lost but one curl of her luxuriant hair. My whiskers cut! no book could e'er contain One half my feelings, wounded pride, and pain. I'll quit the army, lead a life of ease, And wear my beard of any length I please; Join Garibaldi on Italia's plains, And give him counsel, &la Edwin James; •'■' Kelate my warlike deeds in flowing lines, And write bombastic tetters io the Times. I heard about a goat the other day ■ (A fable, written by a man named Gay), Who, having lost his beard, wished io make The other goats all tollow in his wake, And shave their faces that he might not be The only beardless one in company. The moral's obvious, and, I need not add, His accident, like this " order"—very bad. , ' FIREFLY. .