Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DOOM FERRY, by ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DOOM FERRY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Boatman, have they crossed? Not all
Last Line: Dabbling, at my cool dead ease there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Q; Quiller-couch, A. T.
Subject(s): Boats; Jealousy


BOATMAN, have they crossed? 'Not all:
The inn, there, hath an upper chamber,
And a window in the wall
Where the small white roses clamber.

'Many shelves run round the room;
On a shelf, and no man near them,
Two are talking low i' the gloom—
From the trellis' foot may'st hear them.'

Who are they? 'At dawn they came
By the Passage, calling Over!
She the corpse of a comely dame,
And the man, methinks, her lover.'

Boatman, land and climb the stair:
By the scented window-boxes
Lower me that loving pair
Here among the crimson phloxes.

Boatmen, is this honey-dew
Dripping from the window-boxes?
Nay, I cannot tell its hue
Here against the crimson phloxes.

Take a guinea and a groat:
One in ale shall keep thee merry;
Let the other fee the boat
Tiding these across the ferry.

Take this purse: it shall persuade
Him who digs i' th' acre yonder
Them to bed with a cunning spade
Cheek by jowl, no turtles fonder.—

Cheek by jowl, and heart by heart,
But a thought in either buried,
That shall push them wide apart—
Wide enough ere a third be ferried.

So, between, my body I'll thrust,
Laughing, straightening out my knees there,
Either hand in a little dust
Dabbling, at my cool dead ease there.





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