Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CHARADES: 2, by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY Poet's Biography First Line: If you've seen a short man swagger tow'rds the footlights at shoreditch Last Line: Then return, and, clear of conscience, walk into thy well-earned steak. | ||||||||
IF you've seen a short man swagger tow'rds the footlights at Shoreditch, Sing out "Heave aho! my hearties," and perpetually hitch Up, by an ingenious movement, trousers innocent of brace, Briskly flourishing a cudgel in his pleased companion's face; If he preluded with hornpipes each successive thing he did, From a sun-browned cheek extracting still an ostentatious quid; And expectorated freely, and occasionally cursed: -- Then have you beheld, depicted by a master's hand, my first. O my countryman! if ever from thy arm the bolster sped, In thy school-days, with precision at a young companion's head; If 'twas thine to lodge the marble in the centre of the ring, Or with well-directed pebble make the sitting hen take wing: Then do thou -- each fair May morning, when the blue lake is as glass, And the gossamers are twinkling star-like in the beaded grass; When the mountain-bee is sipping fragrance from the bluebell's lip, And the bathing-woman tells you, "Now's your time to take a dip": When along the misty valleys fieldward winds the lowing herd, And the early worm is being dropped on by the early bird; And Aurora hangs her jewels from the bending rose's cup, And the myriad voice of Nature calls thee to my second up: -- Hie thee to the breezy common, where the melancholy goose Stalks, and the astonished donkey finds that he is really loose; There amid green fern and furze-bush shalt thou soon my whole behold, Rising "bull-eyed and majestic" -- as Olympus' queen of old: Kneel, -- at a respectful distance, -- as they kneeled to her, and try With judicious hand to put a ball into that ball-less eye: Till a stiffness seize thy elbows, and the general public wake -- Then return, and, clear of conscience, walk into thy well-earned steak. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A,B,C by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY BALLAD by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY COMPANIONS; A TALE OF A GRANDFATHER by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY CONTENTMENT, AFTER THE MANNER OF HORACE by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY DISASTER by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY LINES ON HEARING THE ORGAN by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY LOVERS, AND A REFLECTION by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY MOTHERHOOD by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY ODE TO TOBACCO by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY ON THE BRINK by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY |
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