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University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

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[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]

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[Unless you are growing wise and good]

Unless you are growing wise and good,
I can't respect you for growing old;
'Tis a path you fain would avoid if you could,
And it means growing ugly, suspicious, and cold.