Ode to Messrs Green Robert Hollond and Monck Mason on their Late Balloon Expedition by [[Author:Thomas Hood (1799-1845)

O lofty minded men !

Almost beyond the pitch of my goose pen !

And most inflated words !

Delicate Ariels ! ethereals ! birds

Of passage fliers angels without wings !

Fortunate rivals of Icarian darings !

Male witches without broomsticks taking airings !

Kites without strings !

Volatile spirits light mercurial humors !

O give us soon your sky adventures truly,

With full particulars correcting duly

All flying rumors !

Two legged high fliers !

What upper stories you must have to tell

And nobody can contradict you well

Or call you liars

Your Region of Romance will many covet

Besides that you may scribble what you will

And this great luck will wait upon you still

All criticism you will be above it

Write then Messrs Monck Mason Hollond Green !

And tell us all you have or haven t seen !

Twaa kind when the balloon went out of town

To take Monck Mason up and set him down

For when a gentleman is at a shift

For carriage talk of carts and gigs and coaches

Nothing to a balloon approaches

For giving one ''a lift'' ]

O say when Mr Frederic Gye

Seemed but a speck a mote in friendship's eye

Did any tongue confess a sort of dryness

Seeming the soaring rashness to rebuke

Or did each feel himself like Brunswick's Duke

A moat Serene Highness

Say as you crossed the Channel

Well clothed in well aired linen and warm flannel

How did your company perceived afar

Affect the tar Methinks I see him cock his weather eye

Against the sky

Turning his ruminating quid full oft

With wonder sudden taken all aback -

Sailor's Perspective

Imagines a sailor's bewildered reaction to seeing balloonists, capturing the era's technological wonder.

"My eyes", says he

"I'm blowed if there ain't ''three''

Three little Cherubs smiling up aloft

A-watching for poor Jack "

Of course at such a height the ocean -

Affected no one by its motion -

But did internal comfort dwell with each

Quiet and ease each comfortable skin in ?

Or did brown Hollond of a sudden bleach

As white as Irish linen ?

Changing his native hue

Did Green look blue ?

In short, was any air sick? P'rhaps Monck Mason

Was forced to have an air pump in a bason

Say with what sport or pleasure

Might you fill up your lofty leisure ?

Like Scotchman at high jinks ?

(High-spy was an appropriate game methinks)

Or cards but playing very high;

Or skying coppers almost to the sky

Or did you listen the first mortal ears

That ever drank the music of the spheres ?

Or might you into vocal music get

A trio - highly set ?

Or as the altitude so well allowed

Perchance you, "blew a cloud"

Say did you find the air

Give you an appetite up there ?

Your cold provisions were you glad to meet em ?

Or did you find your victuals all so - ''high''

Or blown up so by your - ''fly''

You couldn't eat em

Of course you took some wine to sup

Although the circumstance has not been stated

I envy you the effervescing cup

Warn t your Champagne ''well up''

Nay you yourselves a little ''elevated'' !

Then for your tea and breakfast, say,

Was it not something delicately new,

To get ''sky blue''

Right genuine from the real ''milky way'' !

Of course, you all agreed

Whate'er your conversation was about

Like friends indeed

And faith I not without need

'Twas such an awkward place for ''falling out'' !

Say after your gastronomy

Kept you a watch all night

Marking the planets bright

Like three more

Scientific Exploration Parody

Mocks the serious scientific pretensions of balloon explorers by describing them as childlike adventurers.

Airys studying astronomy ;

Or near the midnight chime

Did some one haul his nightcap on his head

Hold out his mounted watch and say "''high'' time

To go to bed?"

German Cultural Reaction

Satirizes German cultural stereotypes of being easily startled and overly formal.

Didn't your coming scare

The sober Germans until every cap

Rose lifted by a frightened fell of hair ;

Meanwhile the very pipe mayhap

Extinguished like the vital spark in death

From wonder locking up the smoker's breath

Didn't they crouch like chickens when the kite

Hovers in sight

To see your vehicle of huge dimension

Aloft like Gulliver's Laputa nay

I'd better say

The Island of Ascension ?

Well was it planned

To come down thus into the German land

Where Honors you may score by such event -

For if I read the prophecy aright

You ll have the Eagle Order for your flight

And all be Von'd because of your ''descent'' !