The Home Book of Verse — Volume 4 online

The Last Buccaneer Thomas Babington Macaulay
The Leadman's Song Charles Dibdin
Homeward Bound William Allingham


THE SIMPLE LIFE

The Lake Isle of Innisfree William Butler Yeats
A Wish Samuel Rogers
Ode on Solitude Alexander Pope
"Thrice Happy He" William Drummond
"Under the Greenwood Tree" William Shakespeare
Coridon's Song John Chalkhill
The Old Squire Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Inscription in a Hermitage Thomas Warton
The Retirement Charles Cotton
The Country Faith Norman Gale
Truly Great William H. Davies
Early Morning at Bargis Hermann Hagedorn
The Cup John Townsend Trowbridge
A Strip of Blue Lucy Larcom
An Ode to Master Anthony
Stafford Thomas Randolph
"The Midges Dance Aboon the
Burn" Robert Tannahill
The Plow Richard Hengist Horne
The Useful Plow Unknown
"To One Who has Been Long in
City Pent" John Keats
The Quiet Life William Byrd
The Wish Abraham Cowley
Expostulation and Reply William Wordsworth
The Tables Turned William Wordsworth
Simple Nature George John Romanes
"I Fear no Power a Woman
Wields" Ernest McGaffey
A Runnable Stag John Davidson
Hunting Song Richard Hovey
"A-Hunting We Will Go" Henry Fielding
The Angler's Invitation Thomas Tod Stoddart
The Angler's Wish Izaak Walton
The Angler John Chalkhill


WANDERLUST

To Jane: the Invitation Percy Bysshe Shelley
"My Heart's in the
Highlands" Robert Burns
"Afar in the Desert" Thomas Pringle
Spring Song in the City Robert Buchanan
In City Streets Ada Smith
The Vagabond Robert Louis Stevenson
In the Highlands Robert Louis Stevenson
The Song my Paddle Sings E. Pauline Johnson
The Gipsy Trail Rudyard Kipling
Wanderlust Gerald Gould
The Footpath Way Katherine Tynan
A Maine Trail Gertrude Huntington McGiffert
Afoot Charles G. D. Roberts
From Romany to Rome Wallace Irwin
The Toil of the Trail Hamlin Garland
"Do You Fear the Wind?" Hamlin Garland
The King's Highway John S. McGroarty
The Forbidden Lure Fannie Stearns Davis
The Wander-Lovers Richard Hovey
The Sea-Gipsy Richard Hovey
A Vagabond Song Bliss Carman
Spring Song Bliss Carman
The Mendicants Bliss Carman
The Joys of the Road Bliss Carman
The Song of the Forest
Ranger Herbert Bashford
A Drover Padraic Colum
Ballad of Low-lie-down Madison Cawein
The Good Inn Herman Knickerbocker Viele
Night for Adventures Victor Starbuck
Song, "Something calls and
whispers" Georgiana Goddard King
The Voortrekker Rudyard Kipling
The Long Trail Rudyard Kipling



PART IV



FAMILIAR VERSE, AND POEMS HUMOROUS AND SATIRIC

Ballade of the Primitive Jest Andrew Lang


THE KINDLY MUSE

Time to be Wise Walter Savage Landor
Under the Lindens Walter Savage Landor
Advice Walter Savage Landor
To Fanny Thomas Moore
"I'd be a Butterfly" Thomas Haynes Bayly
"I'm not a Single Man" Thomas Hood
To - - - Winthrop Mackworth Praed
The Vicar Winthrop Mackworth Praed
The Belle of the Ball-room Winthrop Mackworth Praed
The Fine Old English
Gentleman Unknown
A Ternerie of Littles, upon
a Pipkin of Jelly Sent to
a Lady Robert Herrick
Chivalry at a Discount Edward Fitzgerald
The Ballad of Bouillabaisse William Makepeace Thackeray
To my Grandmother Frederick Locker-Lampson
My Mistress's Boots Frederick Locker-Lampson
A Garden Lyric Frederick Locker-Lampson
Mrs. Smith Frederick Locker-Lampson
The Skeleton in the Cupboard Frederick Locker-Lampson
A Terrible Infant Frederick Locker-Lampson
Companions Charles Stuart Calverley
Dorothy Q Oliver Wendell Holmes
My Aunt Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Last Leaf Oliver Wendell Holmes
Contentment Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Boys Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Jolly Old Pedagogue George Arnold
On an Intaglio Head of
Minerva Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thalia Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Pan in Wall Street Edmund Clarence Stedman
Upon Lesbia - Arguing Alfred Cochrane
To Anthea, who May Command
Him Anything Alfred Cochrane
The Eight-Day Clock Alfred Cochrane
A Portrait Joseph Ashby-Sterry
"Old Books are Best" Beverly Chew
Impression Edmund Gosse
"With Strawberries" William Ernest Henley
Ballade of Ladies' Names William Ernest Henley
To a Pair of Egyptian
Slippers Edwin Arnold
Without and Within James Russell Lowell
"She was a Beauty" Henry Cuyler Bunner
Nell Gwynne's Looking-Glass Laman Blanchard
Mimnermus in Church William Johnson-Cory
Clay Edward Verrall Lucas
Aucassin and Nicolete Francis William Bourdillon
Aucassin and Nicolette Edmund Clarence Stedman
On the Hurry of This Time Austin Dobson
"Good-Night, Babette" Austin Dobson
A Dialogue from Plato Austin Dobson
The Ladies of St. James's Austin Dobson
The Cure's Progress Austin Dobson
A Gentleman of the Old
School Austin Dobson
On a Fan Austin Dobson
"When I Saw You Last, Rose" Austin Dobson
Urceus Exit Austin Dobson
A Corsage Bouquet Charles Henry Luders
Two Triolets Harrison Robertson
The Ballad of Dead Ladies Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Ballade of Dead Ladies Andrew Lang
A Ballad of Dead Ladies Justin Huntly McCarthy
If I Were King Justin Huntly McCarthy
A Ballade of Suicide Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Chiffons! William Samuel Johnson
The Court Historian Walter Thornbury
Miss Lou Walter de La Mare
The Poet and the Wood-louse Helen Parry Eden
Students Florence Wilkinson
"One, Two, Three" Henry Cuyler Bunner
The Chaperon Henry Cuyler Bunner
"A Pitcher of Mignonette" Henry Cuyler Bunner
Old King Cole Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Master Mariner George Sterling
A Rose to the Living Nixon Waterman
A Kiss Austin Dobson
Biftek aux Champignons Henry Augustin Beers
Evolution Langdon Smith
A Reasonable Affliction Matthew Prior
A Moral in Sevres Mildred Howells
On the Fly-leaf of a Book of
Old Plays Walter Learned
The Talented Man Winthrop Mackworth Praed
A Letter of Advice Winthrop Mackworth Praed
A Nice Correspondent Frederick Locker-Lampson
Her Letter Bret Harte
A Dead Letter Austin Dobson
The Nymph Complaining for
the Death of her Fawn Andrew Marvell
On the Death of a Favorite
Cat Drowned in a Tub of
Goldfishes Thomas Gray
Verses on a Cat Charles Daubeny
Epitaph on a Hare William Cowper
On the Death of Mrs.
Throckmorton's Bullfinch William Cowper
An Elegy on a Lap-Dog John Gay
My Last Terrier John Halsham
Geist's Grave Matthew Arnold
"Hold" Patrick R. Chalmers


THE BARB OF SATIRE

The Vicar of Bray Unknown
The Lost Leader Robert Browning
Ichabod John Greenleaf Whittier
What Mr. Robinson Thinks James Russell Lowell
The Debate in the Sennit James Russell Lowell
The Marquis of Carabas Robert Brough
A Modest Wit Selleck Osborn
Jolly Jack William Makepeace Thackeray
The King of Brentford William Makepeace Thackeray
Kaiser & Co A. Macgregor Rose
Nongtongpaw Charles Dibdin
The Lion and the Cub John Gay
The Hare with Many Friends John Gay
The Sycophantic Fox and the
Gullible Raven Guy Wetmore Carryl
The Friend of Humanity and
the Knife-Grinder George Canning
Villon's Straight Tip to all
Cross Coves William Ernest Henley
Villon's Ballade Andrew Lang
A Little Brother of the Rich Edward Sandford Martin
The World's Way Thomas Bailey Aldrich
For My Own Monument Matthew Prior
The Bishop Orders His Tomb
at Saint Praxed's Church Robert Browning
Up at a Villa - Down in the
City Robert Browning
All Saints' Edmund Yates
An Address to the Unco Guid Robert Burns
The Deacon's Masterpiece Oliver Wendell Holmes
Ballade of a Friar Andrew Lang
The Chameleon James Merrick
The Blind Men and the
Elephant John Godfrey Saxe
The Philosopher's Scales Jane Taylor
The Maiden and the Lily John Fraser
The Owl-Critic James Thomas Fields
The Ballad of Imitation Austin Dobson
The Conundrum of the
Workshops Rudyard Kipling
The V-a-s-e James Jeffrey Roche
Hem and Haw Bliss Carmen
Miniver Cheevy Edwin Arlington Robinson
Then Ag'in Sam Walter Foss
A Conservative Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
Similar Cases Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
Man and the Ascidian Andrew Lang
The Calf-Path Sam Walter Foss
Wedded Bliss Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
Paradise: A Hindoo Legend George Birdseye
Ad Chloen, M. A. Mortimer Collins
"As Like the Woman as
You Can" William Ernest Henley
"No Fault in Women" Robert Herrick
"Are Women Fair" Francis Davison (?)
A Strong Hand Aaron Hill
Women's Longing John Fletcher
Triolet Robert Bridges
The Fair Circassian Richard Garnett
The Female Phaeton Matthew Prior
The Lure John Boyle O'Reilly
The Female of the Species Rudyard Kipling
The Woman with the Serpent's
Tongue William Watson
Suppose Anne Reeve Aldrich
Too Candid by Half John Godfrey Saxe
Fable Ralph Waldo Emerson
Woman's Will Unknown
Woman's Will John Godfrey Saxe
Plays Walter Savage Landor
Remedy Worse than the
Disease Matthew Prior
The Net of Law James Jeffrey Roche
Cologne Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Epitaph on Charles II John Wilmot
Certain Maxims of Hafiz Rudyard Kipling
A Baker's Duzzen uv
Wise Sawz Edward Rowland Sill
Epigram Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Epigram Unknown
Epigram Richard Garnett
Epigram Richard Garnett
Epigram Walter Savage Landor
Epigram William Erskine
Epigram Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Epigram Alexander Pope
Epigram Samuel Johnson
Epigram John Gay
Epigram Alexander Pope
Epigram Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Epigram Unknown
Epigram Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Epigram Unknown
Epigram Matthew Prior
Epigram George Macdonald
Epigram Jonathan Swift
Epigram Byron's epitaph for Pitt
Epigram David Garrick
Epigram John Harington
Epigram John Byrom
Epigram Richard Garnett
Epigram Thomas Moore
Epigram Unknown
Epigram Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Epigram John Dryden
Epigram Thomas Hood
Written on a Looking-glass Unknown
An Epitaph George John Cayley
On the Aristocracy of
Harvard John Collins Bossidy
On the Democracy of Yale Frederick Scheetz Jones
A General Summary Rudyard Kipling


THE MIMICS

An Omar for Ladies Josephine Daskam Bacon
"When Lovely Woman" Phoebe Cary
Fragment in Imitation of
Wordsworth Catherine M. Fanshaw
Only Seven Henry Sambrooke Leigh
Lucy Lake Newton Mackintosh
Jane Smith Rudyard Kipling
Father William Lewis Carroll
The New Arrival George Washington Cable
Disaster Charles Stuart Calverley
'Twas Ever Thus Henry Sambrooke Leigh
A Grievance James Kenneth Stephen
"Not a Sou Had he Got" Richard Harris Barham
The Whiting and the Snail Lewis Carroll
The Recognition William Sawyer
The Higher Pantheism in a
Nutshell Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Willow-tree William Makepeace Thackeray
Poets and Linnets Tom Hood, the Younger
The Jam-pot Rudyard Kipling
Ballad Charles Stuart Calverley
The Poster-girl Carolyn Wells
After Dilletante Concetti Henry Duff Traill
If Mortimer Collins
Nephilidia Algernon Charles Swinburne
Commonplaces Rudyard Kipling
The Promissory Note Bayard Taylor
Mrs. Judge Jenkins Bret Harte
The Modern Hiawatha George A. Strong
How Often Ben King
"If I should Die To-night" Ben King
Sincere Flattery James Kenneth Stephen
Culture in the Slums William Ernest Henley
The Poets at Tea Barry Pain
Wordsworth James Kenneth Stephen




PART IV




FAMILIAR VERSE, AND POEMS HUMOROUS AND SATIRIC




BALLADE OF THE PRIMITIVE JEST

"What did the dark-haired Iberian laugh at before the tall blonde
Aryan drove him into the corners of Europe?" - Brander Matthews

I am an ancient Jest!
Palaeolithic man
In his arboreal nest
The sparks of fun would fan;
My outline did he plan,
And laughed like one possessed,
'Twas thus my course began,
I am a Merry Jest!

I am an early Jest!
Man delved, and built, and span;
Then wandered South and West
The peoples Aryan,
I journeyed in their van;
The Semites, too, confessed, -
From Beersheba to Dan, -
I am a Merry Jest!

I am an ancient Jest!
Through all the human clan,
Red, black, white, free, oppressed,
Hilarious I ran!
I'm found in Lucian,
In Poggio, and the rest,
I'm dear to Moll and Nan!
I am a Merry Jest!

ENVOY
Prince, you may storm and ban -
Joe Millers are a pest,
Suppress me if you can!
I am a Merry Jest!

Andrew Lang [1844-1912]




THE KINDLY MUSE




TIME TO BE WISE

Yes; I write verses now and then,
But blunt and flaccid is my pen,
No longer talked of by young men
As rather clever:
In the last quarter are my eyes,
You see it by their form and size;
Is it not time then to be wise?
Or now or never.

Fairest that ever sprang from Eve!
While Time allows the short reprieve,
Just look at me! would you believe
'Twas once a lover?
I cannot clear the five-bar gate;
But, trying first its timber's state,
Climb stiffly up, take breath, and wait
To trundle over.

Through gallopade I cannot swing
The entangling blooms of Beauty's spring:
I cannot say the tender thing,
Be't true or false,
And am beginning to opine
Those girls are only half-divine
Whose waists yon wicked boys entwine
In giddy waltz.

I fear that arm above that shoulder;
I wish them wiser, graver, older,
Sedater, and no harm if colder,
And panting less.
Ah! people were not half so wild
In former days, when, starchly mild,
Upon her high-heeled Essex smiled
The brave Queen Bess.

Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864]




UNDER THE LINDENS

Under the lindens lately sat
A couple, and no more, in chat;
I wondered what they would be at
Under the lindens.

I saw four eyes and four lips meet,
I heard the words, "How sweet! how sweet!"
Had then the Fairies given a treat
Under the lindens?

I pondered long and could not tell
What dainty pleased them both so well:
Bees! bees! was it your hydromel
Under the lindens?

Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864]




ADVICE

To write as your sweet mother does
Is all you wish to do.
Play, sing, and smile for others, Rose!
Let others write for you.

Or mount again your Dartmoor gray,
And I will walk beside,
Until we reach that quiet bay
Which only hears the tide.

Then wave at me your pencil, then
At distance bid me stand,
Before the caverned cliff, again
The creature of your hand.

And bid me then go past the nook
To sketch me less in size;
There are but few content to look
So little in your eyes.

Delight us with the gifts you have,
And wish for none beyond:
To some be gay, to some be grave,
To one (blest youth!) be fond.

Pleasures there are how close to Pain
And better unpossessed!
Let poetry's too throbbing vein
Lie quiet in your breast.

Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864]




TO FANNY

Never mind how the pedagogue proses,
You want not antiquity's stamp;
The lip, that such fragrance discloses,
Oh! never should smell of the lamp.

Old Chloe, whose withering kisses
Have long set the Loves at defiance,
Now, done with the science of blisses,
May fly to the blisses of science!

Young Sappho, for want of employments,
Alone o'er her Ovid may melt,
Condemned but to read of enjoyments,
Which wiser Corinna had felt.

But for you to be buried in books -
Oh, Fanny! they're pitiful sages;
Who could not in one of your looks
Read more than in millions of pages!

Astronomy finds in your eyes
Better light than she studies above,
And Music must borrow your sighs
As the melody fittest for Love.

In Ethics - 'tis you that can check,
In a minute, their doubts and their quarrels;
Oh! show but that mole on your neck,
And 'twill soon put an end to their morals.

Your Arithmetic only can trip
When to kiss and to count you endeavor;
But eloquence glows on your lip
When you swear that you'll love me for ever.

Thus you see what a brilliant alliance
Of arts is assembled in you, -
A course of more exquisite science
Man never need wish to pursue.

And, oh! - if a Fellow like me
May confer a diploma of hearts,
With my lip thus I seal your degree,
My divine little Mistress of Arts!

Thomas Moore [1779-1852]




"I'D BE A BUTTERFLY"

I'd be a Butterfly born in a bower,
Where roses and lilies and violets meet;
Roving for ever from flower to flower,
And kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet!
I'd never languish for wealth, or for power,
I'd never sigh to see slaves at my feet:
I'd be a Butterfly born in a bower,
Kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet.

O could I pilfer the wand of a fairy,
I'd have a pair of those beautiful wings;
Their summer days' ramble is sportive and airy,
They sleep in a rose when the nightingale sings.
Those who have wealth must be watchful and wary;
Power, alas! naught but misery brings!
I'd be a Butterfly, sportive and airy,
Rocked in a rose when the nightingale sings!

What, though you tell me each gay little rover
Shrinks from the breath of the first autumn day:
Surely 'tis better when summer is over
To die when all fair things are fading away.
Some in life's winter may toil to discover
Means of procuring a weary delay -
I'd be a butterfly; living, a rover,
Dying when fair things are fading away!

Thomas Haynes Bayly [1797-1839]




"I'M NOT A SINGLE MAN"
Lines Written In A Young Lady's Album

A pretty task, Miss S - -, to ask
A Benedictine pen,
That cannot quite at freedom write
Like those of other men.
No lover's plaint my Muse must paint
To fill this page's span,
But be correct and recollect
I'm not a single man.

Pray only think, for pen and ink
How hard to get along,
That may not turn on words that burn,
Or Love, the life of song!
Nine Muses, if I chooses, I
May woo all in a clan;
But one Miss S - - I daren't address -
I'm not a single man.

Scribblers unwed, with little head,
May eke it out with heart
And in their lays it often plays
A rare first-fiddle part.
They make a kiss to rhyme with bliss,
But if I so began,
I have my fears about my ears -
I'm not a single man.

Upon your cheek I may not speak,
Nor on your lip be warm,
I must be wise about your eyes,
And formal with your form;
Of all that sort of thing, in short,
On T. H. Bayly's plan,
I must not twine a single line -
I'm not a single man.

A watchman's part compels my heart
To keep you off its beat,
And I might dare as soon to swear
At you, as at your feet.
I can't expire in passion's fire
As other poets can -
My life (she's by) won't let me die -
I'm not a single man.

Shut out from love, denied a dove,
Forbidden bow and dart;
Without a groan to call my own,
With neither hand nor heart;
To Hymen vowed, and not allowed
To flirt e'en with your fan,
Here end, as just a friend, I must -
I'm not a single man.

Thomas Hood [1799-1845]




TO - -

We met but in one giddy dance,
Good-night joined hands with greeting;
And twenty thousand things may chance
Before our second meeting;
For oh! I have been often told
That all the world grows older,
And hearts and hopes to-day so cold,
To-morrow must be colder.

If I have never touched the string
Beneath your chamber, dear one,
And never said one civil thing
When you were by to hear one, -
If I have made no rhymes about
Those looks which conquer Stoics,
And heard those angel tones, without
One fit of fair heroics, -

Yet do not, though the world's cold school
Some bitter truths has taught me,
Oh, do not deem me quite the fool
Which wiser friends have thought me!
There is one charm I still could feel,
If no one laughed at feeling;
One dream my lute could still reveal, -
If it were worth revealing.

But Folly little cares what name
Of friend or foe she handles,
When merriment directs the game,
And midnight dims the candles;