Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BUNCH OF FORGET-ME-NOTS, by THOMAS HOOD


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A BUNCH OF FORGET-ME-NOTS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Forget me not! It is the cry of clay
Last Line: "forget me not!"
Subject(s): Forget-me-nots


FORGET me not! It is the cry of clay,
From infancy to age, from ripe to rotten;
For who, "to dumb forgetfulness a prey,"
Would be forgotten?

Hark the poor infant, in the age of pap,
A little Laplander on nurse's lap,
Some strange, neglectful, gossiping old Trot,
Meanwhile on dull Oblivion's lap she lieth,
In her shrill Baby-lonish language crieth -- What?
"Forget me not!"

The schoolboy writes unto the self-same tune,
The yearly letter, guiltless of a blot,
"We break up on the twenty-third of June;
And then, with comps. from Dr. Polyglot,
"P.S. Forget me not!"

When last my elder brother sailed for Quito,
My chalky foot had in a hobble got --
Why did he plant his timber toe on my toe,
To stamp on memory's most tender spot
"Forget me not!"

The dying nabob, on whose shrivelled skin
The Indian "mulliga" has left its "tawny,"
Leaving life's pilgrimage so rough and thorny,
Bindeth his kin
Two tons of sculptured marble to allot --
A small "Forget me not!"

The hardy sailor parting from his wives,
Sharing among them all that he has got,
Keeps a fond eye upon their after-lives,
And says to seventeen -- "If I am shot,
Forget me not."

Why, all the mob of authors that now trouble
The world with cold-pressed volumes and with hot;
They all are seeking reputation's bubble,
Hopelessly hoping, like Sir Walter Scott,
To tie in fame's own handkerchief a double
Forget-me-knot!

A past past tense,
In fact, is sought for by all human kind,
And hence
Our common Irish wish -- to leave ourselves behind.

Forget me not! It is the common chorus
Swell'd by all those behind and before us;
Each fifth of each November
Calls out "Remember!"
And even a poor man of straw will try
To live by dint of powder and of plot.
In short, it is the cry of every Guy --
"Forget me not!"





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