William Makepeace Thackeray
Cabbages
(Letitia Elizabeth Landon)
Cabbages! bright green cabbages!
April’s loveliest gifts, I guess.
There is not a plant in the garden laid,
Raised by the dung, dug by the spade,
None by the gardener watered, I ween,
So sweet as the cabbage, the cabbage green.
I do remember how sweet a smell
Came with the cabbage I loved so well,
Served up with the beef that beautiful looked,
The beef that the dark-eyed Ellen cooked.
I have seen beef served with radish of horse,
I have seen beef served with lettuce of Cos,
But it is far nicer, far nicer, I guess,
As bubble and squeak, beef and cabbages.
And when the dinner-bell sounds for me—
I care not how soon that time may be—
Carrots shall never be served on my cloth;
They are far too sweet for a boy of my broth;
But let me have there a mighty mess
Of smoking hot beef and cabbages.
Larry O’Toole
(Lever)
You’ve all heard of Larry O’Toole,
Of the beautiful town of Drumgoole;
He had but one eye,
To ogle ye by—
Oh, murther, but that was a jew’l!
A fool
He made of de girls, dis O’Toole.
’Twas he was the boy didn’t fail,
That tuck down pataties and mail;
He never would shrink
From any sthrong dthrink,
Was it whisky or Drogheda ale;
I’m bail
That Larry would swallow a pail.
Oh, many a night, at the bowl,
With Larry I’ve sot cheek by jowl;
He’s gone to his rest,
Where there’s dthrink of the best,
And so let us give his old sowl
A howl,
For ’twas he made the noggin to rowl.
The Willow Tree
(Thackeray)
Long by the willow-trees
Vainly they sought her,
Wild rang the mother’s screams
O’er the grey water:
‘Where is my lovely one?
Where is my daughter?
‘Rouse thee, sir constable—
Rouse thee and look;
Fisherman, bring your net,
Boatman, your hook.
Beat in the lily-beds,
Dive in the brook!’
Vainly the constable
Shouted and called her;
Vainly the fisherman
Beat the green alder,
Vainly he flung the net,
Never it hauled her!
Mother, beside the fire
Sat, her nightcap in;
Father, in easy-chair,
Gloomily napping,
When at the window-sill
Came a light tapping!
And a pale countenance
Looked through the casement.
Loud beat the mother’s heart,
Sick with amazement,
And at the vision, which
Came to surprise her,
Shrieked in an agony—
‘Lor’! it’s Elizar!’
Yes, ’twas Elizabeth—
Yes, ’twas their girl;
Pale was her cheek, and her
Hair out of curl.
‘Mother!’ the loving one,
Blushing, exclaimed,
‘Let not your innocent
Lizzy be blamed.
‘Yesterday, going to Aunt
Jones’s to tea,
Mother, dear mother, I
Forgot the door-key!
And as the night was cold,
And the way steep,
Mrs. Jones kept me to
Breakfast and sleep.’
Whether her pa and ma
Fully believed her,
That we shall never know:
Stern they received her;
And for the work of that
Cruel, though short, night,
Sent her to bed without
Tea for a fortnight.
Moral.
Hey diddle diddlety,
Cat and the Fiddlety!
Maidens of England, take caution by she!
Let love and suicide
Never tempt you aside,
And always remember to take the door-key!
Dear Jack
(Francis Fawkes)
Dear Jack, this white mug that with Guinness I fill,
And drink to the health of sweet Nan of the Hill,
Was once Tommy Tosspot’s, as jovial a sot,
As e’er drew a spigot, or drain’d a full pot—
In drinking, all round ’twas his joy to surpass,
And with all merry tipplers he swigg’d off his glass.
One morning in summer, while seated so snug,
In the porch of his garden, discussing his jug,
Stern Death, on a sudden, to Tom did appear,
And said, ‘Honest Thomas, come take your last bier;’
We kneaded his clay in the shape of this can,
From which let us drink to the health of my Nan.
The Ghazul, or Oriental Love-Song
I. The Rocks.
I was a timid little antelope;
My home was in the rocks, the lonely rocks.
I saw the hunters scouring on the plain;
I lived among the rocks, the lonely rocks.
I was a-thirsty in the summer-heat;
I ventured to the tents beneath the rocks.
Zuleikah brought me water from the well;
Since then I have been faithless to the rocks.
I saw her face reflected in the well;
Her camels since have marched into the rocks.
I look to see her image in the well;
I only see my eyes, my own sad eyes.
My mother is alone among the rocks.