I years had been from home,
And now, before the door,
I dared not open, lest a face
I never saw before

Stare vacant into mine
And ask my business there.
My business,—just a life I left,
Was such still dwelling there?

I fumbled at my nerve,
I scanned the windows near;
The silence like an ocean rolled,
And broke against my ear.

I laughed a wooden laugh
That I could fear a door,
Who danger and the dead had faced,
But never quaked before.

I fitted to the latch
My hand, with trembling care,

I just want to get back
to Birmingham
I just want to get back
to Birmingham
I got a gang in Third Alley
don't know where I am

I'd rather be in Third Alley
without a dime
I'd rather be in Third Alley
without a dime
Than to be in Chicago
simply wasting my time

I'm going in Third Alley
and bring my rider home
I'm going in Third Alley
and bring my rider home
All these women in Third Alley
won't let my rider alone

Ifreeze, I freeze, and nothing dwels
In me but Snow, and ysicles.
For pitties sake give your advice,
To melt this snow, and thaw this ice;
I'le drink down Flames, but if so be
Nothing but love can supple me;
I'le rather keepe this frost, and snow,
Then to be thaw'd, or heated so.

I dreamed my love came in my sleep,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John.
His eyes were wet as he did weep,
My Lowlands, away!

I shall never kiss you again, he said,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John!
For I am drowned in the Lowland seas.
My Lowlands, away!

No other man shall think me fair,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John!
My love lies drowned in the windy Lowlands,
My Lowlands, away!

I CHANGE , and so do women too;
But I reflect, which women never do.

I and Pangur Bán, my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye

I am the dog world's best detective.
My sleuthing nose is so effective
I sniff the guilty at a distance
And then they lead a doomed existence.
My well-known record for convictions
Has earned me lots of maledictions
From those whose trail of crime I scented
And sent to prison, unlamented.
Folks either must avoid temptation
Or face my nasal accusation.

I AM bewildered still and teased by elves
That cloud about me even through city streets.
One sings a stave and one a dream repeats,
One, crueller, in some old resentment delves.
I am aware they are my other selves,
Yet to what dazzling vision each entreats,
Casting a glamor over shams and cheats,
Ennobling cant, buzzing by tens and twelves!
So then my smiling grieves the passerby.
I strut in all vocations not my own,
Wearing the centuries like a baldric slung;
Whilst shabby I gawk at this splendid I.
Chronos and Momus through my lips intone,

How to win her
To put from my head
That she is morning
and evening
to me
That the wind has carried her fragrance
To wild flowers
high and hidden
That she is the cool dark doorway
of my temple
Yet I cannot go there until
I am dead
That she is nude
as a glass of water
and dances before me
Like a white feather blown
by the wind
That she lies before me
A long slender stretch of firm white sand
To put this from my head
To see her as a woman only
To win one night in her bed.

How! gossip mine, gossip mine,
When will we go to the wine,
Good gossipes mine?

I shall you tell a full good sport,
How gossipes gader them on a sort,
Their seke bodies to comfort
When they meet
In lane or street,
Good gossipes mine. . . . .

‘Good gossip mine, wher have ye be?
It is so long sith I you see;
Wher is the best wine? Tell you me.
Can ye aught tell?’
‘Yea, full well,
Good gossipes mine.

‘I know a draught of mery-go-down;
The best it is in all this town;
But yet I wold not, for my gown,
My husband wist.’