1

Look down, look down that lonesome road,
Hang down your head an' sigh;
The best of friends must part some day,
An' why not you an' I,
An' why not you an' I?

2

I wish to God that I had died,
Had died 'fore I was born,
Before I seen your smilin' face
An' heard your lyin' tongue,
An' heard your lyin' tongue.

The burnt eyes burned.
The eyes were neither blue
nor brown. Twinkling,
they stabbed my heart.

They seemed to make me cry,
but did not.
Twinkling, they caressed me,
licked my spoiled heart.

The burnt eyes did not move.
As if they were both blue
and brown, forever

the burnt eyes were quiet!
Having forgotten the sun and fragrant grass,
they burned sadly, twinkling, twinkling.

By far the greater half have I seen through
This floating life — ah, there's the magic word —
This " half " — so rich in implications.
It bids us taste the joy of more than we
Can ever own. Halfway in life is man's
Best state, when slackened pace allows him ease.

A wide world lies halfway 'twixt heaven and earth;
To live halfway between the town and land,
Have farms halfway between the streams and hills;
Be half-a-scholar, and half-a-squire, and half
In business; half as gentry live,
And half related to the common folk;

The burned and dusty garden said:
“My leaves are echoes, and thy earth
Is packed with footsteps of the dead.

“The strength of spring-time brought to birth
Some needles on the crooked fir,—
A rose, a laurel—little worth.

“Come here, ye dreaming souls that err
Among the immortals of the grave:
My summer is your sepulchre.

“On earth what darker voices rave
Than now this sea-breeze, driving dust
And whirling radiance wave on wave,

“With lulls so fearful thro' the gust
That on the shapeless flower-bed

Monarch of Han, he doted on beauty, yearned for a bewitching temptress;
Through the dominions of his sway, for many years he sought but did not find her.
There was in the family of Yang a maiden just then reaching fullness,
Raised in the women's quarters protected, unacquainted yet with others.
Heaven had given her a ravishing form, impossible for her to hide,
And one morning she was chosen for placement at the side of the sovereign king.
When she glanced behind with a single smile, a hundred seductions were quickened;

Burgeis, thou haste so blowen atte the cole,
That alle thy rode is from thine face agoon,
And haste do so many shotte and istoole,
That fleesh upon thy carkeis is there noon:
There is nought lefte but empty skinne and bone.
Thou were a trewe swinkere, atte the fulle,
But nowe thy chaumbre toukes been, echon,
Peesed and fleedde, and of her laboure dulle.

Thy warderer, that was wonte for to be
Mighty and sadde and grene in his laboure,
So wery is of superfluite
He wolle no more be none ratoure.
Himselfe he is thy verrey accusoure,

Burd Ellen sits in her bower windowe,
With a double laddy double, and for the double do
Twisting the red silk and the blue.
With the double rose and the Machey

And whiles she twisted, and whiles she twan,
And whiles the tears fell down amang.

Till once there by cam Young Tamlane:
" Come light, O light, and rock your young son."

" If you winna rock him, you may let him rair,
For I hae rocked my share and mair."


Young Tamlane to the seas he 's gane,
And a' women's curse in his company 's gane.

Builder, in building the little house,
In every way you may please yourself;
But please please me in the kitchen chimney:
Don't build me a chimney upon a shelf.

However far you must go for bricks,
Whatever they cost apiece or a pound,
Buy me enough for a full-length chimney,
And build the chimney clear from the ground.

It's not that I'm greatly afraid of fire,
But I never heard of a house that throve
(And I know of one that didn't thrive)
Where the chimney started above the stove.

And I dread the ominous stain of tar

Bunny creeps out and caresses his nose,
Combs out his ears with his fluttering toes,
Blinks at the sun
And commences to run
With a skip and a hop
And a flippety-flop,
Nibbling the clover wherever he goes;
But only when he is quite easy in mind
Does he button his little white tail down behind.

Bunny stops dead and stiffens each hair,
And his eyelids freeze in a terrified stare,
And he pricks up his ears,
For the sound that he hears
Is a low muffled beat
And a drumming of feet
And an ominous rub-a-dub-dubbing — but where?

A bundle is a funny thing,
It always sets me wondering;
For whether it is thin or wide
You never know just what's inside.

Especially on Christmas week,
Temptation is so great to peek!
Now wouldn't it be much more fun
If shoppers carried things undone?