‘Tell me, would you rather be

And read as he’d devour it all:Which when the stall-man did espy,Soon to the boy I heard him call,‘You, sir, you never buy a book,Therefore in one you shall not look.’The boy passed slowly on, and with a sighHe wished he never had been taught to read,Then of the old churl’s books he should have…

There they sit, the old men by a shivering fire,Still close and closer cowering, warmth is their desire.In a costly palace, when the brave gallants dine,They have store of good venison, with old canary wine,With singing and music to heighten the cheer;Coarse bits, with grudging, are the pauper’s best fare.In a costly palace Youth is…

A weeping willow lay upon that stream,And all around the fountain brink were spreadWide branching trees, with dark green leaf rich clad,Forming a doubtful twilight-desolate and sad.The place was such, that whoso enter’d in,Disrobed was of every earthly thought,And straight became as one that knew not sin,Or to the world’s first innocence was brought;Enseem’d it…

Once a father’s hopeful heir,Once a mother’s tender care.When too young to understandHe but scorched his little hand,By the candle’s flaming lightAttracted, dancing, spiral, bright,Clasping fond her darling round,A thousand kisses healed the wound.Now abject, stooping, old, and wan,No mother tends the beggar-man.Then nought too good for him to wear,With cherub face and flaxen hair,In…

When the nursing woman brought herTo papa, his infant daughter,How papa’s dear eyes did glisten!-She will shortly be to christen:And papa has made the offer,I shall have the naming of her.Now I wonder what would please her,Charlotte, Julia, or Louisa.Ann and Mary, they’re too common;Joan’s too formal for a woman;Jane’s a prettier name beside;But we…

Nor with little female prideThings above your sense deride.Why this foolish under-ratingOf my first attempts at Latin?Know you not each thing we prizeDoes from small beginnings rise?‘Twas the same thing with your writing,Which you now take such delight in.First you learnt the down-stroke line,Then the hair-stroke thin and fine,Then a curve, and then a better,Till…