Blackberries :: :: University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

[epigraph]

[dedication]

[section]

[Dear Poet! is thy free light step the same]

[Tho' out of fashion, still to me]

[With wrappings and knottings your meaning you hide]

[A song or a riddle? I best like a song.]

[For Heaven's sake, Mighty Poet! leave thy tricks]

[Accurst, O Poet! be thy song]

[“Love's but a kind of itch”]

Epitaph (between the Lines).

[“Why murmur at this foolish crown of bays?”]

[A new Thing's rare indeed! The Poets play]

[Good Sense and Poetry, old friends, are now not seen together]

[The Poet launched a stately fleet: it sank.]

Advice to a Young Poet.

Self-Criticism.

A Public Monument.

[Apollo smiles on bards of every sort]

Inscription omitted on a Public Monument.

Statua Infelix.

To a Modern Poet.

Modern Poet answers

[A brilliant literature, no doubt, have we.]

[section]

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108

[A song or a riddle? I best like a song.]

A song or a riddle? I best like a song.
But if it's a riddle don't make it too long.
And if it's a riddle one hopes there's an answer,—
Which we perhaps can't give, but you of course can, Sir.