Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OLD WOMAN OF TROYES, by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OLD WOMAN OF TROYES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: She is an old woman, certainly one
Last Line: Of this old woman of troyes!
Subject(s): Old Age; Troy; Women


SHE is an old woman, certainly one
Of the most remarkable under the sun,
Not even excepting the old woman who
Lived very retired in the heel of a shoe,
And was troubled with troublesome boys;
The very quintessence of spirit and strength,
Corked down in a body not four feet in length,
And perhaps I should add, the very personi-
Fication of everything skinny and bony,
Is this Old Woman of Troyes!

As soon as the diligence, clatter, and clang,
Gets into the square, and pulls up with a bang,
Probably waking up half of the people,
And shaking the town from the stones to the steeple,
With a terrible racket and noise;
Out of Le Grand Mulet (mentioned by Murray
As "good, clean, and cheap"), in all sorts of a hurry,
With a light in her hand—of course a rush light—
She comes with a rush, in the depth of the night,
This queer Old Woman of Troyes!

She unloads in a trice, I really can't state
Exactly the number of cwt.,
From the top of the diligence down to the flags;
While as for such matters as baskets and bags,
They're nothing but trifles and toys;
Around and around the old woman scampers,
Amongst packages, boxes, and barrels, and hampers;
A bale of packed cotton, or load of pressed hay,
Would be nothing at all, I'll venture to say,
To this Old Woman of Troyes!

While we are looking, she's gone for a minute,
Flies to the court-yard, and disappears in it,
But only, it seems, to take a fresh start,
For out of the gate with a monster hand-cart,
Like a squadron of horse she deploys;
Then into it piles up trunks, boxes, and chests,
As a tailor would pile up trousers and vests,
Hops into the shafts like a twelve-pounder shot,
And off through the streets, at a rousing round trot,
Goes this Old Woman of Troyes!

Now, if Hugo or Scribe had been in the coupé,
Or Janin or Sue, it's easy to say,
That, besides with the hand-cart this very long run.
In a novel or play she might have had one,
And made a prodigious great noise;
Or in England, that country of guilds and of crafts,
She'd surely be christened the Countess of Shafts,
Leaving the bury out of the word,
Which would make it too long, by more than a third,
For this Old Woman of Troyes!

Now, ye mothers all over the world attend,
And I'll give you the moral that comes at the end;
If you have a large family, in a long series
Of Peggies, and Sallies, and Annas, and Maries;
Without wishing your girls had been boys,
Don't make of these Peggies, or Annas, or Maries,
Hot-house camellias or gilt-cage canaries,
To break other people's and then their own hearts,
But teach them the useful, industrial arts
Of this Old Woman of Troyes!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net