Charles William Shirley Brooks
Sonnet CCCI
To My Five New Kittens.
(Tupper)
Soft little beasts, how pleasantly ye lie
Snuggling and snoozling by your purring sire,
Mother I mean (but sonnet-rhymes require
A shorter word, and boldly I defy
Those who would tie the bard by pedant rule).
O kittens, you’re not thinking, I’ll be bound,
How three of you had yesterday been drowned
But that my little boy came home from school,
And begged your lives, though Cook remonstrance made,
Declaring we were overrun with cats,
That licked her cream-dish and her butter-pats,
But childhood’s pleadings won me, and I said—
‘O Cook, we’ll keep the innocents alive;
They’re five, consider, and you’ve fingers five.’
For a’ That and a’ That
A New Version, respectfully recommended to sundry whom it concerns.
(Burns)
More luck to honest poverty,
It claims respect, and a’ that;
But honest wealth’s a better thing,
We dare be rich for a’ that.
For a’ that, and a’ that,
And spooney cant and a’ that,
A man may have a ten-pun note,
And be a brick for a’ that.
What though on soup and fish we dine,
Wear evening togs and a’ that,
A man may like good meat and wine,
Nor be a knave for a’ that.
For a’ that, and a’ that,
Their fustian talk and a’ that,
A gentleman, however clean,
May have a heart for a’ that.
You see yon prater called a Beales,
Who bawls and brays and a’ that,
Tho’ hundreds cheer his blatant bosh,
He’s but a goose for a’ that.
For a’ that, and a’ that,
His Bubblyjocks, and a’ that,
A man with twenty grains of sense,
He looks and laughs at a’ that.
A prince can make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a’ that,
And if the title’s earned, all right,
Old England’s fond of a’ that.
For a’ that, and a’ that,
Beales’ balderdash, and a’ that,
A name that tells of service done
Is worth the wear, for a’ that.
Then let us pray that come it may
And come it will for a’ that,
That common sense may take the place
Of common cant and a’ that.
For a’ that, and a’ that,
Who cackles trash and a’ that,
Or be he lord, or be he low,
The man’s an ass for a’ that.