University of Virginia Library

Introductory Verses

TO Songs and Rhymes: English and French by Walter Herries Pollock: London, 1882.

Orhymer! skilled on either string,
In either tongue, to strike and sing,
Why ask of me an idle thing,
A rhyme before your Rhymes to set?
For good wine needs no bush; nor these
Demand my praise to make them please.
More than the gray anemones
From fragrant April gardens wet
Your singing verse delights my dream;
But, bid me scribble, and I seem
The huckster hoarse that o'er the stream
Of traffic howls, Fresh flowers to-day!
The crowd must praise the flowers, must come
To buy them, but they wish him dumb,
The man who cracks your tympanum
With shouting what he need not say.
The crowd in London's dust and grime
Must crave the buds of summer time,
But he who shouts, and I who rhyme,
Might almost scare the crowd away!
Nay, if that merchant only knew
His art, he'd let the scented dew,
The country fragrance wafted through
The street, bring custom to his stall:
And I, more wise than he, will let
The blossoms in your garden set,
Pansy, and rue, and violet,
Speak for themselves to one and all.