Punch (96.1889)

298_PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI._[Jpke 22, 1889.

THE MODERN PURSUIT OF PLEASURE.

No bacchant-nymph, with breeze-borne
tresses,

And luring eyes, and bosom bare,

Is it in whose pursuit fast presses,

With blood-shot gaze and blatant blare,
This eager crowd.

How hoarsely loud

The ululations rise!

Pirates who track a helpless prize,

Might howl like this, or wolf-pack pierce
The wintry air with cries as fierce ;

And yet they chase not prey, but—Pleasure!
Swift’s savage wit perchance might
measure,

In flail-like phrase, the glorious gain
Of Realism’s ruffian train, _

Over those merely fancy-pictures
Which move the modern critic’s strictures.
Great Modern Spirit! what a mercy
That Allegory, quaint, fantastic,

No longer finds our fancy plastic,—