Works

In vain to live from age to age
While modern bards endeavour,
I write my name in Patty's page,
And gain my point for ever.

The snow lies pure and peaceful on the ground,
Serenely smiles the azure sky o'erhead:
The Sabbath spirit dwells on all around,
And weekly toils and discords all are fled.
...

Cease, ye prudes, your envious railings,
Lovely Burns has charms, confess:
True it is, she had one failing,
Had a woman ever less?

Say, lovely Charlotte! will you let me prove
What diff'rent thoughts thy taste and beauty move?
This woven chain, which graceful skill displays,
Leads me to think of time, and heave a sigh;...

The cruelty of P. L. Brown
(He had ten toes as good as mine)
Was known to every one in town,
And, if he never harmed a noun,
He loved to make verbs shriek and whine.
...

This talk about the journalists that run the East is bosh,
We've got a Western editor that's little, but, O gosh!
He lives here in Mizzoora where the people are so set...

To the tune of "There was a little man, and he wooed a little maid."

DEDICATED TO THE RT. HON. CHARLES ABBOT.


arcades ambo et cantare pares


1813.

...

1

There was a little man
And he woo'd a little maid,
And he said, "Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed?
I have little more to say
Than 'will you, yea or nay?'...

Dear Mary, if thy little bird
Should, all the winter long,
Pleased from the window to be heard,
Repay thee with a song;

A lesson let it still convey
To all with sense endued;...

Oh, how greedy you look as you stare at my plate,
Your mouth waters so, and your big tail is drumming
Flop! flop! flop! on the carpet, and yet if you'll wait,
When we have quite finished, your dinner is coming....

I.

Take Heart

Take heart again. Joy may be lost awhile.
It is not always Spring.
And even now from some far Summer Isle
Hither the birds may wing.

II.

Touchstones
...

Is it well with the child? and she answered, it is well.


If earth's weariness for rest is changed,
Rest on the far off shore,
If earth's sighing's changed for singing...

Little Miss Brag has much to say
To the rich little lady from over the way
And the rich little lady puts out a lip
As she looks at her own white, dainty slip,
And wishes that she could wear a gown...

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Eating of curds and whey;



There came a big Spider
And sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Come out, O Little Moccasins, and frolic on the snow!
Come out, O tiny beaded feet, and twinkle in the light!
I'll play the old Red River reel, you used to love it so:...

Get along leetle mouse, kick de snow up behin' you
For it's fine winter road we 're travelto- night
Wit' de moon an' de star shinin' up on de sky dere
W'y it 's almos' de sam' as de broad day light....

The Text here given is the version printed, with very few variations, in Wit Restor'd, 1658, Wit and Drollery, 1682, Dryden's Miscellany, 1716, etc. The Percy Folio contains a fragmentary version, consisting of some dozen stanz...

Little Yam Mango
Has beautiful eyes,
Also the brightest
Of scarlet neckties.

Little Yam Mango
Will never go out;
Being so lazy,
He's grown very stout.

Little brown face full of smiles,
And a baby's guileless wiles,
Liza May, Liza May.

Eyes a-peeping thro' the fence
With an interest intense,
Liza May.

Ah, the gate is just ajar,...

Yon vale among the mountains,
So sheltered from the sea,
That lake which lies so lonely,
Shall tell their tale to thee.

Here stood a stately convent
Where now the waters sleep,...