Q:dwo
we know of anything which can
be as dull as one englishman

A Python I should not advise, —
It needs a doctor for its eyes,
And has the measles yearly.
However, if you feel inclined
To get one (to improve your mind,
And not from fashion merely),
Allow no music near its cage;
And when it flies into a rage
Chastise it, most severely.
I had an Aunt in Yucatan
Who bought a Python from a man
And kept it for a pet.
She died, because she never knew
These simple little rules and few; —
The snake is living yet.

Father! Thy wonders do not singly stand,
Nor far removed where feet have seldom strayed;
Around us ever lies the enchanted land,
In marvels rich to Thine own sons displayed.

In finding Thee are all things round us found!
In losing Thee are all things lost beside!
Ears have we, but in vain sweet voices sound,
And to our eyes the vision is denied.

Open our eyes that we that world may see!
Open our ears that we Thy voice may hear!
And in the spirit-land may ever be,
And feel Thy presence with us always near;

Put on your silks; and piece by piece
Give them the scent of Amber-Greece:
And for your breaths too, let them smell
Ambrosia-like, or Nectarell:
While other Gums their sweets perspire,
By your owne jewels set on fire.

Put his head
and anxious face
out of a car.
Seemed to have said:
Yell's the name
of this place;
seven, three, four.

Man addressed
tried to evince
interest,
as often before
and often since.
Said the name
of where they were
was Odiham.
Delighted, sir.

Fat, pale chap
seemed dissatisfied;
snatched a map
from those inside
Engine tried
as much as it could
to drown the voices
with throbbing noises.
Man understood
him to say:
We know the way
to the south of France;

When thou art done thy toil, anew art born;
With hands that never touched the spade or plough,
Nor in the furrows strewed the yellow corn,
Or plucked the ripened fruit from off the bough:
Then shall thou work begin; — thy plough and spade
Shall break at early morn the virgin soil;
The swelling hill and thickly wooded glade
With changing aspect own the daily toil;
Thy house shall strike the eye, where none are near,
For thou hast travelled far, where few have trod;
And those who journey hence will taste thy cheer,

Purse, who'll not know you have a poet's been,
When he shall look and find no gold herein?
What respect (think you) will there now be shown
To this foul nest when all the birds are flown?
Unnatural vacuum, can your emptiness
Answer to some slight questions, such as these?
How shall my debts be paid? or can my scores
Be cleared with verses to my creditors?
Hexameter's no sterling, and I fear
What the brain coins goes scarce for current there:
Can metre cancel bonds? Is here a time
Ever to hope to wipe out chalk with rhyme?

They love me not, who at my table eat;
They live not on the bread that Thou hast given;
The word Thou giv'st is not their daily meat,
The bread of life that cometh down from heaven;
They drink but from their lips the waters dry,
There is no well that gushes up within;
And for the meat that perishes they cry,
When Thou hast vexed their souls because of sin;
Oh send thy laborers! every hill and field
With the ungathered crop is whitened o'er;
To those who reap it shall rich harvests yield,
The full eared grain all ripened for thy store;

The Purple Precincts touch Longevity Mountain
to the west;
twice I am summoned to view the Dragon Visage!
I bow down, receive the wise counsel of the Sage,
and then, my sleeves filled with Heaven's fragrance,
I emerge through the ninefold gates.

The purple heather is the cloak
God gave the bogland brown,
But man has made a pall o' smoke
To hide the distant town

Our lights are long and rich in change,
Unscreened by hill or spire,
From primrose dawn, a lovely range,
To sunset's farewell fire.

No morning bells have we to wake
Us with their monotone,
But windy calls of quail and crake
Unto our beds are blown.

The lark's wild flourish summons us
To work before the sun;
At eve the heart's lone Angelus
Blesses our labour done.