OH, where are the endless Romances Our grandmothers used to adore? The Knights with their helms and their lances, Their shields and the favours they wore? And the Monks with their magical lore? They have passed to Oblivion and @3Nox,@1 They have fled to the shadowy shore,— They are all in the Fourpenny Box! And where the poetical fancies Our fathers rejoiced in, of yore? The lyric's melodious expanses, The Epics in cantos a score They have been and are not: no more Shall the shepherds drive silvery flocks, Nor the ladies their languors deplore,— They are all in the Fourpenny Box! And the Music! The songs and the dances? The tunes that Time may not restore? And the tomes where Divinity prances? And the pamphlets where Heretics roar? They have ceased to be even a bore,— The Divine, and the Sceptic who mocks,— They are "cropped," they are "foxed" to the core,— They are all in the Fourpenny Box! ENVOY. Suns beat on them; tempests downpour, On the chest without cover or locks, Where they lie by the Bookseller's door,— They are @3all@1 in the Fourpenny Box! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 1. OFF GIBRALTAR by SARA TEASDALE LEXINGTON [APRIL 19, 1775] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES DRINKING; PARAPHRASED by ANACREON BABEL: THE GATE OF GOD by GORDON BOTTOMLEY TO THE MEMORY OF MY DEAR DAUGHTER IN LAW by ANNE BRADSTREET SAVAGES by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN AN ELEGY ON THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF THOMAS AYLEWORTH, SLAIN AT CROYDON by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |