Where’er he turns his solemn eyesThe interlocking signals rise.The trains, before his visage pale,Glide smoothly by, nor leave the rail.No splinter-spitted victim heHears uttering the note high C.In sorrow deep he hangs his head,A-weary-would that he were dead.Now suddenly his spirits riseA great thought kindles in his eyes.Hope, like a headlight’s vivid glare,Splendors the path…
On an island I lay in a mystical bay,In the dream that I dreamed I was dreaming.The ghost of a scent-had it followed me thereFrom the place where I truly was resting?It filled like an anthem the aisles of the air,The presence of roses attesting.Yet I thought in the dream that I dreamed I dreamedThat…
Hear the twittle-twittle-tweeroOf my sibillating fifeAnd the rub-a-dub-a-dumOf my big bass drum!I’m an escort strong and bold,The Grand Army to protect.My countenance is coldAnd my attitude erect.I’m a Californian GuardAnd my banner flies aloft,But the stones are O, so hard!And my feet are O, so soft!
And he’s such a cold and a chaste Big SmithThat snowflakes all are his kin and kith.Wherever his eye he chances to throwThe crystals of ice begin to grow;And the fruits and flowers he sees are lostBy the singeing touch of a sudden frost.The women all shiver whenever he’s near,And look upon _us_ with a…
Of dying idiot to the witHe died of, rat-like, in a pit!Thyself disguised, in many a wayThou let’st thy sudden splendor play,Adorning all where’er it turns,As the revealing bull’s-eye burns,Of the dim thief, and plays its trickUpon the lock he means to pick.Yet sometimes, too, thou dost appearAs boldly as a brigadierTricked out with marks…
And if the people since have made you budgeI did not notice it. I’ve much to doWithout endeavoring to follow, throughThe miserable squabbles, dust and smudge,The fate of even the veteran contendersWho fight with flying colors and suspenders.Being a Judge, ’tis natural and wrongThat you should villify the public pressSave while you are a candidate….
So _you’re_ unthankful-you’ll not eat the bird?You sit about the place all day and gird.I understand you’ll not attend the ballThat’s to be given to-night in Pauper Hall.PAUPER:Why, that is true, precisely as you’ve heard:I have no teeth and I will eat no bird.SUPERINTENDENT:Ah! see how good is Providence. BecauseOf teeth He has denuded both…
For sending home my clothes all full of pinsA shirt occasionally that’s a snareAnd a delusion, got, the Lord knows where,The Lord knows why-a sock whose outs and insNone know, nor where it ends nor where begins,And fewer cuffs than ought to be my share.But when I mark thy lilies how they grow,And the red…
Whose fate is full of meaning, if correctly understoodAdmonition to the haughty, consolation to the good.It happened in the hot snap which we recently incurred,When ’twas warm enough to carbonize the feathers of a bird,And men exclaimed: ‘By Hunky!’ who were bad enough to swear,And pious persons supervised their adjectives with care.Mr. Peters was a…
And I’ve often heard it stated that her fingering was suchThat Professor Schweinenhauer was enchanted with her touch;And that beasts were so affected when her apparatus rangThat they dropped upon their haunches and deliriously sang.This I know from testimony, though a critic, I opine,Needs an ear that is dissimilar in some respects to mine.She could…
