Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LETTER FROM COBBLER IN PATRICK'S STREET TO JET BLACK, by THOMAS SHERIDAN (1687-1738)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LETTER FROM COBBLER IN PATRICK'S STREET TO JET BLACK, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: If any line I write's a hobbler
Last Line: That you were here, and t' other quart.
Subject(s): Tisdall, William (1669-1735)


If any line I write's a hobbler,
Consider, Sir, that I'm a cobbler;
Therefore, I hope you'll give allowance
To an old friend that you did know once.
Nor should I this compar'son offer,
Wer't not for Jonathan of Cloffer.

Now I'm to show the world, d'ee see,
that I'm like you, and you're like me --
Like as two pegs, or as two tacks,
As this to t' other ball of wax.

In all things perfect cousin-germans --
I vamp old boots, you vamp old sermons;
My verses are but so and so,
And yours I think a peg too low.
Like you I oftentimes wax warm,
And yet I do no creature harm.
If I've a rupture with a friend,
I patch it up, and there's an end.
I oftentimes am forced to hammer,
Like you, to make my verses grammar.
Whole hours prepond'ring in my stall I
Sit for a rhyme to "shilly shall I";
And after all I think, dear Billy,
I'm forced to make it "shall I, shill I."
You see we both agree in rhymes;
Why wits you know will jump sometimes,
In one thing (though in all we're brother-wise)
We differ, which I wish were otherwise:
Our black's applied to diff'rent use;
You blacken men, I blacken shoes;
Yet one thing you observe that's mine --
The more you black, the more they shine.
To make us both alike in awl,
Oh, that your rev'rence had a stall!
For you can never hope a mitre,
Because you are too fine a writer.

I must cut short, my verses fail,
'Tis time to take a pot of ale;
Dear Jet, I wish with all my heart
That you were here, and t' other quart.






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