THE News, indeed! -- pray do you call it news When shallow noddles publish shallow views? Pray, is it news that turnips should be bred As large and hollow as the owner's head? News, that a clerk should rob his master's hoard, Whose meagre salary scarcely pays his board? News, that two knaves, their spurious friendship o'er, Should tell the truths which they concealed before? News, that a maniac, weary of his life, Should end his sorrows with a rope or knife? News, that a wife should violate the vows That bind her, loveless, to a tyrant spouse? News, that a daughter cheats paternal rule, And weds a scoundrel to escape a fool? -- The news, indeed! -- Such matters are as old As sin and folly, rust and must and mould! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GREEN SYMPHONY by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER FLANNAN ISLE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON HERTHA by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE ON A MINIATURE by HENRY AUGUSTIN BEERS EPITAPH ON MR. VAUX, THE PHYSICIAN by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) THE TRAGEDY OF CHARLES, DUKE OF BYRON by GEORGE CHAPMAN (1559-1634) THE OUTLAW by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. AN EPITAPH ON MY DEAR AUNT, MRS. ANN STANHOPE by CHARLES COTTON |