Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FISH FOR BREAKFAST by HENRY T. CHAMBERS

First Line: IN UTAH BECKY'S PLACE
Last Line: "SPRING IS AN OLD MAN'S FRIEND."
Subject(s): SPRING; YOUTH;

In Utah Becky's place
I drank a toast to spring,
And a farmer lad with a priest's face
Said this owlish thing:
"How, when the heart is leaping
Can the hand sow for reaping?
Drink me no toast to spring!
Spring is a young man's foe.
When larks and lasses sing
How can a young man hoe?
How, when the wind is warming
'Tend strict the farming?
Each year I am afraid
Since I was twenty
I shall go wed a maid
And troubles plenty,
And then, to tamp my larder
I must plow harder.
If you must waste the wine,
Drink to the year's cold end;
Spring is no friend of mine.
Spring is an old man's friend."



Home: PoetryExplorer.net