Have you heard the story that gossips tell Of Burns of Gettysburg? No? Ah, well: Brief is the glory that hero earns, Briefer the story of poor John Burns. He was the fellow who won renown,...
When I bought you for a song, Years ago Lord knows how long! I was struck I may be wrong By your features, And a something in your air That I couldn't quite compare To my other plain or fair...
And you are the poet, and so you want Something what is it? a theme, a fancy? Something or other the Muse won't grant To your old poetical necromancy; Why, one half you poets you can't deny...
'Crying!' Of course I am crying, and I guess you would be crying, too, If people were telling such stories as they tell about me, about you. Oh yes, you can laugh if you want to, and smoke as you didn't care how,...
Lo! where the castle of bold Pfeiffer throws Its sullen shadow on the rolling tide, No more the home where joy and wealth repose, But now where wassailers in cells abide;...
Brown foundling of the Western wood, Babe of primeval wildernesses! Long on my table thou hast stood Encounters strange and rude caresses; Perchance contented with thy lot,...
O poor Romancer thou whose printed page, Filled with rude speech and ruder forms of strife, Was given to heroes in whose vulgar rage No trace appears of gentler ways and life! ...
'Something characteristic,' eh? Humph! I reckon you mean by that Something that happened in our way, Here at the crossin' of Big Pine Flat. Times aren't now as they used to be,...
Where the sturdy ocean breeze Drives the spray of roaring seas, That the Cliff House balconies Overlook: There, in spite of rain that balked, With his sandals duly chalked,...
Oh, say, have you seen at the Willows so green So charming and rurally true A singular bird, with a manner absurd, Which they call the Australian Emeu? Have you Ever seen this Australian Emeu? ...
Did I ever tell you, my dears, the way That the birds of Cisseter 'Cisseter!' eh? Well 'Ciren-cester' one ought to say, From 'Castra,' or 'Caster,' As your Latin master...
No, I won't, thar, now, so! And it ain't nothin', no! And thar's nary to tell that you folks yer don't know; And it's 'Belle, tell us, do!' and it's 'Belle, is it true?'...
O bells that rang, O bells that sang Above the martyrs' wilderness, Till from that reddened coast-line sprang The Gospel seed to cheer and bless, What are your garnered sheaves to-day?...
So you're back from your travels, old fellow, And you left but a twelvemonth ago; You've hobnobbed with Louis Napoleon, Eugenie, and kissed the Pope's toe. By Jove, it is perfectly stunning,...
Waltz in, waltz in, ye little kids, and gather round my knee, And drop them books and first pot-hooks, and hear a yarn from me. I kin not sling a fairy tale of Jinnys fierce and wild,...
Sauntering hither on listless wings, Careless vagabond of the sea, Little thou heedest the surf that sings, The bar that thunders, the shale that rings, Give me to keep thy company. ...
O Joy of creation To be! O rapture to fly And be free! Be the battle lost or won, Though its smoke shall hide the sun, I shall find my love, the one Born for me! ...