Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

collapse section

collapse section

[To plan a wise life, little pains doth ask]

[Suppose we tried the simple plan, to say]

[O life, made up of hints and moods and fine transitions]

[To fight the World's a weary strife]

[Thou Great One! help a poor weak man]

[Lord, make me fit for heav'n!—but nay]

[Speak but one word beyond cavil or doubt!]

[Tease not conscience, rack not wit]

[Take heed, take heed! the petty seed]

[Bad thoughts come and bad thoughts go]

[Heaven's space from Hell doth good from ill divide]

[Foul blotch of sin—disease—disgrace—]

[“Right and Wrong,” “Heaven and Hell,”]

[The pure bright world of childhood round us lies]

[Grieve for thy sin, grieve on; yet bless]

[Sin we have explain'd away]

The Game of Definitions.

[With this I end the day, with this begin]

[This is a pray'r for every mood—]

To an Angel pictured looking through the Sky.

[Almighty Lord, if day by day]

[Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation]

[How argue from effects? Whate'er you do]

[Push me, urge me]

[Ruler above me! grant I may]

[How delightful, could I sin]

[Quibble not on Good and Evil]

[A's life is such, you'd say his best hope lies]

[“Must I believe in a God?” Please yourself in the matter.]

[Irreverent Brute! no churchist now]

[That God is moral may be well averr'd]

[Man's only true delight]

[When I perceive my spirit high and clear]

[One friendly look, out of the vague and vast!]

[Ideal Truth, O Power serene]

[The highest, widest, noblest, thought of thine]

[Is “purgatory”]

[I believe in GOD]

collapse section

[The Theologian, propping faith with lies]

[By miracles these, and by mechanics those]

[Knowledge, exact and measurable, this]

Artist v. Scientist.

[Divide, combine, search, sift, and pry]

[Some have spent their money in seeking Philosopher's Stone]

[How man's high thoughts and aspirations came]

[God's banish'd from the Universe, they say]

[You may sketch the world of what shape you please]

[“Man's tongue can utter everything:” O fool!]

[The eyes of Modern Science do not grow]

[What can you tell us of Life? you live in the Cavern of Death.]

[Men try all fashions; “God made Man,”]

[“‘God’ is a foolish name. MAN, whom I worship, is true.]

[“I don't believe in either God or Man.]

[This World has no moral or meaning: the kaleidoscope of Man's Mind]

[“Man's a machine.” Well, if we ever can]

[Less virtuous than they might and ought to be]

[The Age of Poetry is gone]

[How Man is like to Ape we have now heard enough and to spare]

[What if “Nature” be so finely wrought]

[Facts bear analysis and tabulation]

To a Famous Man.

[Well, God in mind of man once held at least]

[“I look for God, no God can see.”]

[Adventurous Spirit, trying every road]

[Army of Science! ever marching]

collapse section

[Ill folk I shun, or fight against: what can]

[The woe of the False Teacher—This]

[Shame upon those who poison youth]

To Certain Persons calling themselves “Christians.”

[If you believed, loud Sir, some decent part]

[Would'st argue upon equal terms with me?]

[“An infidel!” you shout: I have, 'tis true]

[Is it right, on a solemn day]

[O wretched man! who, while his soul is green]

[Clergy to guide poor us are given]

[In sacred reverie and sublime delight]

[The Wisest Living Mortal—Oh]

[As rafter rafter serves to prop]

[Every word your Oracle saith]

[Assuredly, God's word is true]

[Ostrichio's soul's digestion is so good]

[Peter's a madman, John agrees]

[How mysteries attract!]

[What do your dogmas? Mix dispute and doubt]

[Great Saint, how we've misused thy fame]

To a Controversialist.

[The modern plea for keeping up a Creed—]

[We don't believe it: but let it be.]

['Twere well, in sooth]

[Fain would I seek the City of Truth]

[I believe without bother]

[We hate thee, solemn Public Liar]

[Young Mother, with thy babe at rest]

[Yea, Raffael! Michael Angelo! your hands]

[Dogmatic Christians, one and all]

[All “Christian virtues” I rejoice to greet.]

[“Art Faith's Apostle? Can'st thou save us?”—No.]

[A pseudo-religion suits most people best]

[This World is made to no man's mind]

[Remember this, Lover of truth and right]

[“If you shake these dogmas you shake morality with them.” Yea.]

[Religion—what a labyrinthine mesh!]

[The New Religion will include]

[Long time amongst the thorns I dwelt]

collapse section

[Where is the wise and just man? where]

[Fair houses in my walks I see]

[They are my friends]

[We only touch by surfaces]

[One with one, not overheard]

[I am not shock'd by failings in my friend]

[For thinking, one; for converse, two, no more]

[It is not you, my Foe, I fear]

[From the little that's shown]

[In argument it oft betides]

[Solitude is very sad]

[Little care I for the faults of the small]

[Limited each is: but—O dear!]

[O great one! O mighty one!—]

[Unless you are growing wise and good]

[His way of life was zig-zag still]

[Well for the man whom sickness makes more tender]

[The spiteful dart]

[The weak have no opinions; and the strong]

[By making our trials and sorrows known]

[Some win our gratitude merely by living]

[A hope that we are taught to prize]

[“Old Friend?”—For many years, I wis]

[While friends we were, the hot debates]

[If he draw you aside from your proper end]

[Dear Friend, so much admired, so oft desired]

[I'll make it part of my life's plan]

collapse section

[May loving bosom loving bosom press]

[Some extol passion far above]

[Ruddy double-flower of a Kiss]

[My Darling, you have no father or mother]

[To-day since I have seen her face]

[The expectancy of joy]

[Ev'n in thy arms, O Fair!]

[Tho' bright with youthful bloom and grace]

[Mary would have loved me well]

[O girl of comely form and face]

[I laugh'd in Pleasure's face]

[“I will have none but a Queen]

[Whenever I see from my loneliness]

[Not a Venus-Minerva could charm if she lack'd]

[For a woman's true thought in wait you must lie]

[If any two can live together well]

[By your withholdings you have lost his heart]

[To be Prince, many men would refuse]

[Of Wives it were hard to bear]

[With whom were it a grievous lot to live?]

[Old Man may captivate Miss in her teens]

[Beware what you discover]

[Women, in and out of season]

[Men's wives' opinions, what are they to us?]

[A woman's prime is nearly done]

[If all might choose their sex, there would not then]

[A woman will give a man a guinea]

[Good Marriage, good Marriage, the greatest prize]

[With a Man for thy mate, be content, O Woman, in married life]

[Right Marriage: elevation in communion]

[Whatever joys await the blest above]

[Love's lips are always young]

collapse section

Too Practical to be thought of.

[With pseudo-monarchy and creed]

Words and Deeds.

[England! leave Asia, Africa, alone]

[To do such dreadful work, not merely coin]

[Heroic Chili! Brave Peru!]

[Have Nations human consciences? If so]

[The English Nation is my vexation]

[A poet sits at ease]

Mother Shipton.

collapse section

[Earthborn, in earthly things much sport I find]

[Other men, we think]

[How short is the life of a man!]

[New things happen every day]

[Man's life is not too happy at the best]

[The cruellest of animals is Man]

[If too presumptuous 'twere to pray]

[What bodily and mental fuss]

[How grave (the child thinks) deep and wise]

[Just at the age when a man is clearest and firmest in mind]

[O were I but rid of these ties]

[What hinders me, you ask, to do my best?]

[Clever Youth of acquisitive turn]

[The Spirit said “Be on my side]

[I cannot see, but still I can conceive]

[O the swarm of trifles]

[How obey, yet be autocrat still?]

collapse section

[Precious—good manners! for indeed]

[Bland with the great, and cool with the small]

[Some are so highly polish'd, they display]

[French-polishing manners your trade is]

[Democracy may]

[Mean is the man (so John Bull thinks)]

[Old England is the only place]

[Not men and women in an Irish street]

[The Scotchman is the noblest thing created.]

[An Englishman has a country]

[Contempt, frivolity]

[While we ourselves are seeing and thinking]

[To think all you say, is but candour]

[One thing I very much admire—]

[Say fifty fine things; then let fall]

[Go where you're expected—]

[“Vile money!” True. Let's have enough]

[Who speaks to a crowd]

[I dreamt I went to hell one night.]

[Intolerance may be, no doubt]

[So tangled are we, take any man]

[The wise must keep open their eyes]

[Clothes will not warm a shape of stone or wood]

[All stupid folk are self-complacent too]

[No matter how you think, and but little how you act]

[A blunder of the high-refined—]

[Democrat—Aristocrat—]

[Would you treat all you meet as brothers and sisters?]

[You'll hear a Tiger growl]

[With women and men of all natures and stations]

[Society's pretence and prejudice]

collapse section

[Ad usum Scriptorum.]

[Though modest, as plainly her duty]

[Snort cares not for my writings. That's but fair]

[Why, Screwnose, feel thy coldness or thy gibe?]

[O bounce! O flea! how sharp you bite!]

[Great Critic Zed is rarely sweet of mood.]

[Arr does write books; and, to exalt his own]

[Scratch also writes; and if you can and do]

[On one man, Pinchley, hast thou made a keen]

[Descend from that high judgment-seat]

[Who may this be, comes lounging through the door]

[“Who wrote, tell me true]

[I've studied the Review; let me count my gains]

[Were once your Author underground]

[“Portrait of Peter Pallette by Himself,”]

[As to bribing a newspaper—that is absurd!]

[Ninny is nuisance enough; Dolt worse; but worst is the Blackguard.]

[Is Criticism of use? then, bless your eyes]

[Without feeling or humour, Witticisms,—]

[Though fools and rogues the name disgrace]

[Critics, good-bye! in peace your trade pursue!]

collapse section

[More books!—A juggler, so they say]

[The printer and binder have given such a look]

[Great Medium, sufficiently clever to write]

[How clever soever your Book may be]

[Could famous authors' Ghosts get at their books]

[I have my old Lempriere and new Doctor Smith in the study]

[This is worth noting: wit's controll'd by dulness]

Book and Author.

On a Certain Scientific Writer.

[In ladies' writing if no other aid is]

[Eyebrow, the over-educated man]

Maximilian Gusher.

[Form, subject, given—I'll find the skill]

[Among the tyrannies, the tyranny]

[How earn'st thou scourging, famed Boccaccio?]

[When you account for Hamlet, Monsieur Taine]

[The Teacher lacking truth and lacking love]

[For priests and chieftains, people took of old]

[The Writer's face as Frontispiece display'd]

[Writing is now an adjunct to “the Trade;”]

Two Visitors to the Printing Exhibition.

collapse section

[The Poet's your only practical man]

[Rash is the man that woos]

[Bard makes not Poem, not the shortest one]

[I love all the masters of poesie]

[Not like Homer would I write]

[The loving Poet shapes his fine delight.]

[You cannot see in the world the work of the Poet's pen]

[What chiefly makes a poem? not opulence, nor grace]

[Through the harmony of words]

[The Bard sings Beauty, and what lies behind]

[No wonder if the accurate man]

[If you love not Poetry]

[Many for Poems care much, for Poesie little or nothing]

[Best Poesie, by very skill of words]

collapse section

[Dear Poet! is thy free light step the same]

[Tho' out of fashion, still to me]

[With wrappings and knottings your meaning you hide]

[A song or a riddle? I best like a song.]

[For Heaven's sake, Mighty Poet! leave thy tricks]

[Accurst, O Poet! be thy song]

[“Love's but a kind of itch”]

Epitaph (between the Lines).

[“Why murmur at this foolish crown of bays?”]

[A new Thing's rare indeed! The Poets play]

[Good Sense and Poetry, old friends, are now not seen together]

[The Poet launched a stately fleet: it sank.]

Advice to a Young Poet.

Self-Criticism.

A Public Monument.

[Apollo smiles on bards of every sort]

Inscription omitted on a Public Monument.

Statua Infelix.

To a Modern Poet.

Modern Poet answers

[A brilliant literature, no doubt, have we.]

collapse section

[Faith points to viewless wonders all inherit]

[Doth Music tickle ear, and that's the whole?]

[Out of this hard and thin life]

[How should Oratory give]

[With pen and with pencil we're learning to say]

[Painters, Composers, can make use no doubt]

[How rotten the Art is that works for display!]

[Artist, your business is with surface: true.]

collapse section

[A base and selfish discontent]

[Give us all under, and above, the Moon]

[How different is the life within our breast]

[O heroes, ye comfort my brotherly heart!]

[When the vile and the noble he juggles to mix]

[I do not show]

[That base curmudgeon who in Nelson's stead]

[Berries, and also seeds]

[Good Reader, were I but in Greek]

[One or two at a time]

collapse section

[Sweetheart and sweetheart, husband and wife]

[The figures of Heroes by history outlined]

[He who worships Success]

[Honour and Fortune never sought thee out]

[Each thinks himself exceptional]

[The imperial essence, the transcendent dower]

[“How can it surely be known]

[The Age of Suicide draws near]

[Religion dead]

[The weak, all-powerful force, now in our hand]

[The Children of the Land]

collapse section

An Incalculable Man.

A Distinguished Man.

[I loved A. B. yet my praise was cool.]

Profit and Loss.

[In counting “ruin'd” men, we seldom guess]

[The Chief Malefactors of the time]

[Louche plays the honest and high-minded man]

[“The Devil take him!”—nay, Old Nick]

On a Tradesman.

[“Adulteration is a form of Competition”]

To an Egg-Merchant.

Brown and Green.

To my Friend Edward.

To my Friend Matthew.

To my Friend Daniel.

collapse section

[Outside warm, inside cool]

[I like a good dinner; but none is good]

[B's wine is excellent—but you]

[No banquet's ever to my wish]

[Give me enough of meat and drink]

[For my soul's and body's food]

[Wine, good wine, is an excellent thing]

[Nothing that is not immortal is worth an immortal's care.]

[Clouded mind and sluggish will,—]

[When I am ill, I only long for health]

[The surest test of health is sleep]

[Unnatural chastity, enforced celibacy]

[Mere eating and drinking]

[“There's daily need]

[Wealth can serve special uses,—failing these]

[All should work, and all should play]

[Better a hollow tree in a wood]

collapse section

[Duly, in turn, the wise man looks]

[Our life is a ship at sea]

[No one his country understands]

[There's much a first look cannot give]

[You search: save one thing, all the world is nought.]

[Who cannot money save]

[“Take time to think”—so do: but this you'll find]

[Undutiful children get many a curse]

[Against it are a thousand reasons,—one]

[Young Inexperience misjudges, no doubt]

[Life has enough of trouble]

[Observe thy Dreams.]

[Liberality's much in vogue]

[If we had neither church nor throne]

[One who can see without seeming to see,—]

[Look close at your bills; do you find no cheat?]

[When changes must be granted, 'tis the knowing Statesman's plan]

[I never write from personal spite]

[In greater things or less]

[Herb Duty in life's common ground hath root]

[“Fool's Parsley” is rank poison; learn to know]

[If I could smile]

[If successful thou wouldst be]

[Boldly praise; and some will hear thee.]

[Money matters not at twenty]

[O world, if I had known you long ago]

[Dear Son, I say to you]

[How many things would be ridiculous]

collapse section

[Earth's night is where she rolls]

[By and by, we shall meet]

[Here they are: how little they are!]

[Pleasure, torture, victory, crime,—]

[“Weary your life was, day by day]

[How swift the days do pass!]

[Hast ever chanced to stare aghast]

[Dull and dumb]

[Perception, Will, Personality]

[Why ever asking “why?” you cry; and I]

[Needs and greeds and ties and lies]

[Out of the land of dreams and youth, alas!]

[Lost chance—never again]

[Soon life ends]

[Who will sorrow when I die?]

[Do what wilt with me]

[“I'm learning, every day.”]

collapse section

[Life, after all, is here, and so are we]

[“No absolute right or wrong: what test?”]

[Have Heaven and Earth given a glad hour to thee?]

[Nature's no niggard; if the truth were known]

[When living rightly here below]

[The highest-natured men—the Best—]

[Silent the Earth whirls on her way]

[Quick smiles, sharp tears]

[There's plenty of credit in life at first]

[Good luck and bad luck come to all]

[Good luck's no use unless you can]

[Good Luck, the merry rambler, shuns]

[Love first, Work second]

[Flung out of Dreamland into cold harsh Day]

[For bodily or mental food]

[The healthy man loves life; you love it not]

[Let not man, ignorant and weak]

[To what good end shall ear be lent]

[In every trouble, say—]

[How is it that Man's mere phantasy]

[How easily go things astray!]

[In the midst of labour and folly and strife]

[“All away?”]

Positive truth.

[Be not impatient, O Soul]

collapse section

[Here must I stay awhile, against my will]

[“Nation of Shopkeepers”—how base a name!]

[A whore that's gentle, mild, and sweet]

[Soldiers have fame, and harlots infamy]

[Hireling Soldier, Priest, and Woman]

[Many things flash across the town-bred mind]

[The Workers' Revolution must begin]

[Old folk, tho' weak, will serve you best: of late]

[Is idleness indeed so black a crime?]

[O the buzz and clack and clatter]

[The Century gallops, glorying itself]

[In the Great City, as 'twere Hell]

[One Cockney you despise; four million such]

[A bat-wing'd Cupid takes his flight]

[Stir and change from morn till night]

collapse section

[Here we've wander'd some few hours]

[The metal sleeps in its hidden vein]

[We count men subject to mortality]

[If I must die when all is said and done]

[If we saw these things clear, what then?]

[A skeleton typifies Death.]

[What! am I too grown old? How days have hasted!]

[A mystic tracery of Stars]

[All things freely flow]

[O young Man! cast off cowardice]

[I hear the hum of earth, alive and merry]

collapse section

[If a single verse you find]

collapse section

[Now, little Book, go thy ways!]

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

['Twere well, in sooth]

'Twere well, in sooth,
Could we sift things out;
But we can't find truth,
And we don't want doubt.
So let old things stay,
In whatever jumble;
Touch them, straightway
They crumble and tumble,
Choke us with dust, fall on our toes.
—You that come after us, deal with those!