Works

[W. L. C.]


Sit closer, friends, around the board!
Death grants us yet a little time.
Now let the cheering cup be poured,
And welcome song and jest and rhyme....

[TRIO]


Oh, love hits all humanity, humanity, my dear;
But after all it's vanity, a vanity, I fear;
And sometimes 'tis insanity, insanity, so queer;...

Mrs. Mulligatawny said, "I'm sure it's going to rain."
Mr. Mulligatawny said, "To me it's very plain."
William Mulligatawny said, "It must rain, anyhow."
Mary Mulligatawny said, "I feel it raining now."...

I wrote the truest, tend'rest song
The world had ever heard;
And clear, melodious, and strong,
And sweet was every word.
The flowing numbers came to me
Unbidden from the heart;...

When faltering fingers bid me cease to write,
And, laying down the pen, I seek the Night,
May those, to whom the Daylight still is sweet,
With loving lips my name ofttimes repeat....

[To M.]


With brilliant friends surrounding me,
So cosy at the Club I'm sitting;
While you at home I seem to see,
Attending strictly to your knitting.
...

Fair city by the famed Batrachian Pool,
Wise in the teachings of the Concord School;
Home of the Eurus, paradise of cranks,
Stronghold of thrift, proud in your hundred banks;...

Saint Botolph flourished in the olden time,
In the days when the saints were in their prime.
Oh, his feet were bare and bruised and cold,
But his heart was warm and as pure as gold....

Gently fall the shadows gray,
Daylight softly veiling;
Now to Dreamland we'll away,
Sailing, sailing, sailing.

Little eyes were made for sleeping,
Little heads were made for rest,...

Silly Susan Scuppernong
Cried so hard and cried so long,
People asked her what was wrong.

She replied, "I do not know
Any reason for my woe -
I just feel like feeling so."

I've spent all my money in chasing
For books that are costly and rare;
I've made myself bankrupt in tracing
Each prize to its ultimate lair.
And now I'm a ruined collector,...

Whoso his book of life doth con
From title-leaf to colophon
May read, if he but wrongly look,
Some sorry pages in his book.

But if he read aright each line,
Interpreting the scheme divine,...

A Little Cat played on a silver flute,
And a Big Cat sat and listened;
The Little Cat's strains gave the Big Cat pains,
And a tear on his eyelid glistened.

Then the Big Cat said, "Oh, rest awhile;"...

Crime flourishes throughout the land,
And bids defiance to the law,
And wicked deeds on every hand
O'erwhelm our souls with awe!

I know one hardened criminal
Whose maidenhood with crime begins;...

Oh, why do men their glasses clink
When good old honest wine they drink?

Wine is so excellent a thing
To lowest subject, or to highest king,
That every sense alike should share...

Here comes The Flag!
Hail it!
Who dares to drag
Or trail it?
Give it hurrahs, -
Three for the stars,
Three for the bars.
Uncover your head to it!
The soldiers who tread to it...

The Gurgling Imps of Mummery Mum
Lived in the Land of the Crimson Plum,
And a language very strange had they,
'Twas merely a chattering ricochet.

The Gurgling Imps of Mummery Mum...

My hatband goes around my hat,
And while there's nothing strange in that,
It seems just like a lazy man
Who leaves off where he first began.

But then this fact is always true,...

'Twas a tender little honeysuckle vine
That smiled and danced in the warm sunshine,
And spied a maid as fair as all maids be,
Who said, "Little honeysuckle, come up to me."...

Between the two perplexed I go,
A shuttlecock, tossed to and fro.
I gaze on one, and know that she
Is all that womankind can be;
I seek the other, and she seems
The perfect idol of my dreams;...