Short Poems

Westward the field of the cloth of gold.
It is fall — see the gold in the dust of the fields.
Lay the golden cloth upon me. It is night and I come through the streets to your window.
The dust and the words are all gone, brushed away. Let me sleep,

The western wind has blown but a few days;
Yet the first leaf already flies from the bough
On the drying paths I walk in my thin shoes;
In the first cold I have donned my quilted coat.
Through shallow ditches the floods are clearing away;
Through sparse bamboos trickles a slanting light
In the early dusk, down an alley of green moss,
The garden-boy is leading the cranes home.

Wenes King Edward with his longe shankes
For to win Berwik, al oure unthankes?
Gas, pikes him!
And when he has it,
Gas, dikes him!

Well, then, poor G------lies under ground!
So there's an end of honest Jack.
So little Justice here he found,
'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back.

We are little airy creatures,
All of different voice and features:
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you'll find in jet,
T'other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within;
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.

Oh Patsey dear and did you hear
The news that's going round?
That Marie Tempest's cut her throat,
And Sibyl Thorndike's drowned,
And Marie Lohr has hanged herself;
The ladies of the stage
Expire in envy and despair
Now you have come of age.

The greatest saint of all is she
Who tolerant of each toy
Allows her little girls to play
With this extremely rude and rough
And most untidy boy.

Mary of Holyrood may smile indeed,
Knowing what grim historic shade it shocks
To see wit, laughter and the Popish creed,
Cluster and sparkle in the name of Knox.

I know a friend, very strong and good. He is the best friend in the world.
I know another friend, subtle and sensitive. He is certainly the best friend on earth.
I know another friend: very quiet and shrewd, there is no friend so good as he.
I know another friend, who is enigmatical and reluctant, he is the best of all.
I know yet another: who is polished and eager, he is far better than the rest.
I know another, who is young and very quick, he is the most beloved of all friends.
I know a lot more and they are all like that.

Tea is made; the red fogs shut round the house but the gas burns.
I wish I had at this moment round the table
A company of fine people.
Two of them are at Oxford and one in Scotland and two at other places.
But I wish they would all walk in now, for the tea is made.