Echoes ... From The Cabin and Elsewhere :: :: University of Virginia Library

BOHEMIAN UPS AND DOWNS.

Way up in a garret high,
Just a few feet from the sky,
Dwell I in Bohemia.
What care I for aught below?
There have I nor friend nor foe;
Pity I the struggling throng
While I live my life of song
Up here in Bohemia.

'Tween my teeth my briar root—
Best of friends, since always mute—
Rare thing in Bohemia.
Upward as the thick smoke curls
What care I for simp'ring girls?
Love is weak; my pipe is strong,
Why for love, then, be the song
Sung here in Bohemia?

Oft my little songs fall flat,
Hungry? What care I for that,
Fasting in Bohemia?
Put my only coat in pawn,
Live on that and still sing on;
Puff my pipe and think I've dined—
Barmecidal feasts I find
Often in Bohemia.

Haply, then, my rhymelets take,
With a check my fast to break,
Feast we in Bohemia.
'Round the corner of the block,
Sign o'erhead a crowing cock,
Mug of beer and sandwich fine;
What care we how nabobs dine,
Feasting in Bohemia.

Friends have I, some three or four—
Quite enough, for who has more,
In or out Bohemia?
With them joy is always young,
Grief is but a song that's sung;
Live we, laugh we debonair,
Skies are bright and winds are fair
Always in Bohemia!