Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold By "F. Harald Williams"[i.e. F. W. O. Ward]. First Edition |
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“AUNTIE.” |
 | Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold |  |
“AUNTIE.”
Little hunchy-backed “Auntie,” incongruous elf,
Has had never a foe in the world but herself,
And the terrible drink
With its adamant link;
See, she stands not four feet in her highest-heeled boots
By some very long inches,
And bad habit pinches
Her smaller, and stops any chance of new shoots
Or a healthier growing;
For all the fresh life,
That would feed her, goes flowing
In liquor and strife.
Has had never a foe in the world but herself,
And the terrible drink
With its adamant link;
See, she stands not four feet in her highest-heeled boots
By some very long inches,
And bad habit pinches
Her smaller, and stops any chance of new shoots
Or a healthier growing;
For all the fresh life,
That would feed her, goes flowing
In liquor and strife.
528
But yet “Auntie” is wiser than all the wise men,
And she carries a bottle of ink and a pen
And can scribble (when paid)
For a man or a maid
The most marvellous letters of love without flaw;
O her hand seems to caper
And flourish on paper,
Till ignorant people regard her with awe;
And her moderate charges
Surprise, though a verse
Or two added enlarges
Her claims on your purse.
And she carries a bottle of ink and a pen
And can scribble (when paid)
For a man or a maid
The most marvellous letters of love without flaw;
O her hand seems to caper
And flourish on paper,
Till ignorant people regard her with awe;
And her moderate charges
Surprise, though a verse
Or two added enlarges
Her claims on your purse.
Wretched wee wrinkled “Auntie” is shaped like a bird
With its plumage all ruffled and temper all stirr'd,
With a long hooky beak,
And looks washy and weak;
While her spirit and body refuse to be friends,
For the one is too active
And one too contractive,
And each goes about the most opposite ends;
So I think her big nature
Is in the wrong house,
That would suit with its stature
A midge or a mouse.
With its plumage all ruffled and temper all stirr'd,
With a long hooky beak,
And looks washy and weak;
While her spirit and body refuse to be friends,
For the one is too active
And one too contractive,
And each goes about the most opposite ends;
So I think her big nature
Is in the wrong house,
That would suit with its stature
A midge or a mouse.
Dowdy draggle-tailed “Auntie” has one funny craze,
An aversion for children—she shrinks from their gaze,
And would fly any street
To escape their young feet;
For when first to Whitechapel she drifted, I know,
With her withered and stunted
Poor frame, she was hunted
By urchins with mud and with many a blow.
And those terors yet tarry
Within her scared eyes,
And their brand she will carry
To death's dark Assize.
An aversion for children—she shrinks from their gaze,
And would fly any street
To escape their young feet;
For when first to Whitechapel she drifted, I know,
With her withered and stunted
Poor frame, she was hunted
By urchins with mud and with many a blow.
And those terors yet tarry
Within her scared eyes,
And their brand she will carry
To death's dark Assize.
| Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold | |