Here comes Kate Summers who, for gold, Takes any man to bed: 'You knew my friend, Nell Barnes,' said she; 'You knew Nell Barnes -- she's dead. 'Nell Barnes was bad on all you men, Unclean, a thief as well; Yet all my life I have not found A better friend than Nell. 'So I sat at her side at last, For hours, till she was dead; And yet she had no sense at all Of any word I said. 'For all her cry but came to this -- "Not for the world! Take care: Don't touch that bird of paradise, Perched on the bedpost there!" 'I asked her would she like some grapes, Some damsons ripe and sweet; A custard made with new-laid eggs, Or tender fowl to eat. 'I promised I would follow her, To see her in her grave; And buy a wreath with borrowed pence, If nothing I could save. 'Yet still her cry but came to this -- "Not for the world! Take care: Don't touch that bird of paradise, Perched on the bedpost there!'" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWENTY-FOUR HOKKU ON A MODERN THEME by AMY LOWELL DEAF HOUSE AGENT by KATHERINE MANSFIELD THE WILD GAZELLE by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE TEST by RALPH WALDO EMERSON BETWEEN THE LINES by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON LEGEND by JOHN VAN ALSTYN WEAVER A NAMELESS EPITAPH (1) by MATTHEW ARNOLD URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: THE FIRST CANTO, OR NEW MOON by WILLIAM BASSE |