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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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[Descend from that high judgment-seat]

Descend from that high judgment-seat,
Pomposo!—doff that robe, you Cheat!
Distributor of praise and blame,
Devoid of conscience and of shame,
Who give to ignorance and spite
Deceptive show of law and right,
By talking loud and looking big.
Off too with spectacles and wig!
Let's plainly see your wizen'd shape,
Blear eyes, huge ears, and front of ape.
By no rule, earthly or divine,
So much as one poor vote is thine.