THE bells go chiming O'er Germany I sit here rhyming... If fun were funny, And love lived long, And always honey Were sweet on the tongue, Would life be better Or freedom free? If each love-letter Spelt loyalty, If we didn't go timing The dance with a fetter? If gold were true gold For alchemists —I sit here rhyming— And all were new gold In morning mists? Would laughter measure The step of life If each took pleasure In each's wife? If much were undone In what we see And we built up London In High Germany; Without much pity For crushed out grain We'd fling the city Across this plain— A phantom city Like old Cokayne— Where old dead passions, Come true again And old time fashions Be new again, Where jests once witty Would start again, And long lost pity Take heart again. So I sit rhyming Of fun to be, And the bells all go chiming O'er High Germany. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET TO A FRIEND WHO ASKED, HOW I FELT ... MY INFANT TO ME by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE VIVANDIERE ('70) by WILLIAM ROSE BENET ELYSIAN TRAIL by KATHARINE BROWN BURT OVER AND OVER TUNE by IOANNA CARLSEN REPOSE IN EGYPT by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH EPITAPH ON A FREE BUT TAME REDBREAST by WILLIAM COWPER |