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                    EXTEMPORE.



TO ----------, TO WHOSE INTERFERENCE I CHIEFLY OWE 

          THE VERY LIBERAL PRICE GIVEN FOR 

                     LALLA ROOKH



When they shall tell, in future times,

Of thousands giv'n for idle rhymes

  Like these--the pastime of an hour,

They'll wonder at the lavish taste

That could, like tulip-fanciers, waste

  A little fortune on a flower!



Yet wilt not thou, whose friendship set

  Such value on the bard's renown;

Yet wilt not thou, my friend, regret

  The golden shower thy spell brought down;



For thou dost love the free-born Muse,

Whose flight no curbing chain pursues;

  And thou dost think the song, that shrines 

That image, --so ador'd by thee,

And spirits like thee,--Liberty,

  Of price beyond all India's mines!

                             THOMAS MOORE