Mark Twain

And did young Stephen sicken,

And did the sad hearts thicken,And did the mourners cry?No; such was not the fate ofYoung Stephen Dowling Bots;Though sad hearts round him thickened,‘Twas not from sickness’ shots.No whooping-cough did rack his frame,Nor measles drear, with spots;Not these impaired the sacred nameOf Stephen Dowling Bots.Despised love struck not with woeThat head of curly knots,Nor stomach…

The Bombola faints in the hot Bowral tree,

Far from the breezes of CoolgardieBurn ghastly and blue as the day expires;And Murriwillumba complaineth in songFor the garlanded bowers of Woolloomooloo,And the Ballarat Fly and the lone WollongongThey dream of the gardens of Jamberoo;The wallabi sighs for the Murrubidgee,For the velvety sod of the Munno Parah,Where the waters of healing from MuloowurtieFlow dim in…

These annual bills! these annual bills!

Of ‘truck’ consumed, enjoyed, forgot,Since I was skinned by last year’s lot!Those joyous beans are passed away;Those onions blithe, O where are they?Once loved, lost, mourned-now vexing ILLSYour shades troop back in annual bills!And so ’twill be when I’m agroundThese yearly duns will still go round,While other bards, with frantic quills,Shall damn and damn these…

O Lord, our father,

Go forth to battle – be Thou near them!With them, in spirit, we also go forthFrom the sweet peace of our beloved firesides To smite the foe.O Lord, our God,Help us to tear their soldiersTo bloody shreds with our shells;Help us to cover their smiling fieldsWith the pale forms of their patriot dead; Help us…

Genius, like gold and precious stones,

Geniuses are people who dash of weird, wild,incomprehensible poems with astonishing facility,and get booming drunk and sleep in the gutter.Genius elevates its possessor to ineffable spheresfar above the vulgar world and fills his soulwith regal contempt for the gross and sordid things of earth.It is probably on account of thisthat people who have geniusdo not…