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University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

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[To plan a wise life, little pains doth ask]

[Suppose we tried the simple plan, to say]

[O life, made up of hints and moods and fine transitions]

[To fight the World's a weary strife]

[Thou Great One! help a poor weak man]

[Lord, make me fit for heav'n!—but nay]

[Speak but one word beyond cavil or doubt!]

[Tease not conscience, rack not wit]

[Take heed, take heed! the petty seed]

[Bad thoughts come and bad thoughts go]

[Heaven's space from Hell doth good from ill divide]

[Foul blotch of sin—disease—disgrace—]

[“Right and Wrong,” “Heaven and Hell,”]

[The pure bright world of childhood round us lies]

[Grieve for thy sin, grieve on; yet bless]

[Sin we have explain'd away]

The Game of Definitions.

[With this I end the day, with this begin]

[This is a pray'r for every mood—]

To an Angel pictured looking through the Sky.

[Almighty Lord, if day by day]

[Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation]

[How argue from effects? Whate'er you do]

[Push me, urge me]

[Ruler above me! grant I may]

[How delightful, could I sin]

[Quibble not on Good and Evil]

[A's life is such, you'd say his best hope lies]

[“Must I believe in a God?” Please yourself in the matter.]

[Irreverent Brute! no churchist now]

[That God is moral may be well averr'd]

[Man's only true delight]

[When I perceive my spirit high and clear]

[One friendly look, out of the vague and vast!]

[Ideal Truth, O Power serene]

[The highest, widest, noblest, thought of thine]

[Is “purgatory”]

[I believe in GOD]

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[The Theologian, propping faith with lies]

[By miracles these, and by mechanics those]

[Knowledge, exact and measurable, this]

Artist v. Scientist.

[Divide, combine, search, sift, and pry]

[Some have spent their money in seeking Philosopher's Stone]

[How man's high thoughts and aspirations came]

[God's banish'd from the Universe, they say]

[You may sketch the world of what shape you please]

[“Man's tongue can utter everything:” O fool!]

[The eyes of Modern Science do not grow]

[What can you tell us of Life? you live in the Cavern of Death.]

[Men try all fashions; “God made Man,”]

[“‘God’ is a foolish name. MAN, whom I worship, is true.]

[“I don't believe in either God or Man.]

[This World has no moral or meaning: the kaleidoscope of Man's Mind]

[“Man's a machine.” Well, if we ever can]

[Less virtuous than they might and ought to be]

[The Age of Poetry is gone]

[How Man is like to Ape we have now heard enough and to spare]

[What if “Nature” be so finely wrought]

[Facts bear analysis and tabulation]

To a Famous Man.

[Well, God in mind of man once held at least]

[“I look for God, no God can see.”]

[Adventurous Spirit, trying every road]

[Army of Science! ever marching]

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[Ill folk I shun, or fight against: what can]

[The woe of the False Teacher—This]

[Shame upon those who poison youth]

To Certain Persons calling themselves “Christians.”

[If you believed, loud Sir, some decent part]

[Would'st argue upon equal terms with me?]

[“An infidel!” you shout: I have, 'tis true]

[Is it right, on a solemn day]

[O wretched man! who, while his soul is green]

[Clergy to guide poor us are given]

[In sacred reverie and sublime delight]

[The Wisest Living Mortal—Oh]

[As rafter rafter serves to prop]

[Every word your Oracle saith]

[Assuredly, God's word is true]

[Ostrichio's soul's digestion is so good]

[Peter's a madman, John agrees]

[How mysteries attract!]

[What do your dogmas? Mix dispute and doubt]

[Great Saint, how we've misused thy fame]

To a Controversialist.

[The modern plea for keeping up a Creed—]

[We don't believe it: but let it be.]

['Twere well, in sooth]

[Fain would I seek the City of Truth]

[I believe without bother]

[We hate thee, solemn Public Liar]

[Young Mother, with thy babe at rest]

[Yea, Raffael! Michael Angelo! your hands]

[Dogmatic Christians, one and all]

[All “Christian virtues” I rejoice to greet.]

[“Art Faith's Apostle? Can'st thou save us?”—No.]

[A pseudo-religion suits most people best]

[This World is made to no man's mind]

[Remember this, Lover of truth and right]

[“If you shake these dogmas you shake morality with them.” Yea.]

[Religion—what a labyrinthine mesh!]

[The New Religion will include]

[Long time amongst the thorns I dwelt]

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[Where is the wise and just man? where]

[Fair houses in my walks I see]

[They are my friends]

[We only touch by surfaces]

[One with one, not overheard]

[I am not shock'd by failings in my friend]

[For thinking, one; for converse, two, no more]

[It is not you, my Foe, I fear]

[From the little that's shown]

[In argument it oft betides]

[Solitude is very sad]

[Little care I for the faults of the small]

[Limited each is: but—O dear!]

[O great one! O mighty one!—]

[Unless you are growing wise and good]

[His way of life was zig-zag still]

[Well for the man whom sickness makes more tender]

[The spiteful dart]

[The weak have no opinions; and the strong]

[By making our trials and sorrows known]

[Some win our gratitude merely by living]

[A hope that we are taught to prize]

[“Old Friend?”—For many years, I wis]

[While friends we were, the hot debates]

[If he draw you aside from your proper end]

[Dear Friend, so much admired, so oft desired]

[I'll make it part of my life's plan]

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[May loving bosom loving bosom press]

[Some extol passion far above]

[Ruddy double-flower of a Kiss]

[My Darling, you have no father or mother]

[To-day since I have seen her face]

[The expectancy of joy]

[Ev'n in thy arms, O Fair!]

[Tho' bright with youthful bloom and grace]

[Mary would have loved me well]

[O girl of comely form and face]

[I laugh'd in Pleasure's face]

[“I will have none but a Queen]

[Whenever I see from my loneliness]

[Not a Venus-Minerva could charm if she lack'd]

[For a woman's true thought in wait you must lie]

[If any two can live together well]

[By your withholdings you have lost his heart]

[To be Prince, many men would refuse]

[Of Wives it were hard to bear]

[With whom were it a grievous lot to live?]

[Old Man may captivate Miss in her teens]

[Beware what you discover]

[Women, in and out of season]

[Men's wives' opinions, what are they to us?]

[A woman's prime is nearly done]

[If all might choose their sex, there would not then]

[A woman will give a man a guinea]

[Good Marriage, good Marriage, the greatest prize]

[With a Man for thy mate, be content, O Woman, in married life]

[Right Marriage: elevation in communion]

[Whatever joys await the blest above]

[Love's lips are always young]

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Too Practical to be thought of.

[With pseudo-monarchy and creed]

Words and Deeds.

[England! leave Asia, Africa, alone]

[To do such dreadful work, not merely coin]

[Heroic Chili! Brave Peru!]

[Have Nations human consciences? If so]

[The English Nation is my vexation]

[A poet sits at ease]

Mother Shipton.

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[Earthborn, in earthly things much sport I find]

[Other men, we think]

[How short is the life of a man!]

[New things happen every day]

[Man's life is not too happy at the best]

[The cruellest of animals is Man]

[If too presumptuous 'twere to pray]

[What bodily and mental fuss]

[How grave (the child thinks) deep and wise]

[Just at the age when a man is clearest and firmest in mind]

[O were I but rid of these ties]

[What hinders me, you ask, to do my best?]

[Clever Youth of acquisitive turn]

[The Spirit said “Be on my side]

[I cannot see, but still I can conceive]

[O the swarm of trifles]

[How obey, yet be autocrat still?]

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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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[Ad usum Scriptorum.]

[Though modest, as plainly her duty]

[Snort cares not for my writings. That's but fair]

[Why, Screwnose, feel thy coldness or thy gibe?]

[O bounce! O flea! how sharp you bite!]

[Great Critic Zed is rarely sweet of mood.]

[Arr does write books; and, to exalt his own]

[Scratch also writes; and if you can and do]

[On one man, Pinchley, hast thou made a keen]

[Descend from that high judgment-seat]

[Who may this be, comes lounging through the door]

[“Who wrote, tell me true]

[I've studied the Review; let me count my gains]

[Were once your Author underground]

[“Portrait of Peter Pallette by Himself,”]

[As to bribing a newspaper—that is absurd!]

[Ninny is nuisance enough; Dolt worse; but worst is the Blackguard.]

[Is Criticism of use? then, bless your eyes]

[Without feeling or humour, Witticisms,—]

[Though fools and rogues the name disgrace]

[Critics, good-bye! in peace your trade pursue!]

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[More books!—A juggler, so they say]

[The printer and binder have given such a look]

[Great Medium, sufficiently clever to write]

[How clever soever your Book may be]

[Could famous authors' Ghosts get at their books]

[I have my old Lempriere and new Doctor Smith in the study]

[This is worth noting: wit's controll'd by dulness]

Book and Author.

On a Certain Scientific Writer.

[In ladies' writing if no other aid is]

[Eyebrow, the over-educated man]

Maximilian Gusher.

[Form, subject, given—I'll find the skill]

[Among the tyrannies, the tyranny]

[How earn'st thou scourging, famed Boccaccio?]

[When you account for Hamlet, Monsieur Taine]

[The Teacher lacking truth and lacking love]

[For priests and chieftains, people took of old]

[The Writer's face as Frontispiece display'd]

[Writing is now an adjunct to “the Trade;”]

Two Visitors to the Printing Exhibition.

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[The Poet's your only practical man]

[Rash is the man that woos]

[Bard makes not Poem, not the shortest one]

[I love all the masters of poesie]

[Not like Homer would I write]

[The loving Poet shapes his fine delight.]

[You cannot see in the world the work of the Poet's pen]

[What chiefly makes a poem? not opulence, nor grace]

[Through the harmony of words]

[The Bard sings Beauty, and what lies behind]

[No wonder if the accurate man]

[If you love not Poetry]

[Many for Poems care much, for Poesie little or nothing]

[Best Poesie, by very skill of words]

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[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.]

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[Faith points to viewless wonders all inherit]

[Doth Music tickle ear, and that's the whole?]

[Out of this hard and thin life]

[How should Oratory give]

[With pen and with pencil we're learning to say]

[Painters, Composers, can make use no doubt]

[How rotten the Art is that works for display!]

[Artist, your business is with surface: true.]

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[A base and selfish discontent]

[Give us all under, and above, the Moon]

[How different is the life within our breast]

[O heroes, ye comfort my brotherly heart!]

[When the vile and the noble he juggles to mix]

[I do not show]

[That base curmudgeon who in Nelson's stead]

[Berries, and also seeds]

[Good Reader, were I but in Greek]

[One or two at a time]

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[Sweetheart and sweetheart, husband and wife]

[The figures of Heroes by history outlined]

[He who worships Success]

[Honour and Fortune never sought thee out]

[Each thinks himself exceptional]

[The imperial essence, the transcendent dower]

[“How can it surely be known]

[The Age of Suicide draws near]

[Religion dead]

[The weak, all-powerful force, now in our hand]

[The Children of the Land]

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An Incalculable Man.

A Distinguished Man.

[I loved A. B. yet my praise was cool.]

Profit and Loss.

[In counting “ruin'd” men, we seldom guess]

[The Chief Malefactors of the time]

[Louche plays the honest and high-minded man]

[“The Devil take him!”—nay, Old Nick]

On a Tradesman.

[“Adulteration is a form of Competition”]

To an Egg-Merchant.

Brown and Green.

To my Friend Edward.

To my Friend Matthew.

To my Friend Daniel.

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[Outside warm, inside cool]

[I like a good dinner; but none is good]

[B's wine is excellent—but you]

[No banquet's ever to my wish]

[Give me enough of meat and drink]

[For my soul's and body's food]

[Wine, good wine, is an excellent thing]

[Nothing that is not immortal is worth an immortal's care.]

[Clouded mind and sluggish will,—]

[When I am ill, I only long for health]

[The surest test of health is sleep]

[Unnatural chastity, enforced celibacy]

[Mere eating and drinking]

[“There's daily need]

[Wealth can serve special uses,—failing these]

[All should work, and all should play]

[Better a hollow tree in a wood]

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[Duly, in turn, the wise man looks]

[Our life is a ship at sea]

[No one his country understands]

[There's much a first look cannot give]

[You search: save one thing, all the world is nought.]

[Who cannot money save]

[“Take time to think”—so do: but this you'll find]

[Undutiful children get many a curse]

[Against it are a thousand reasons,—one]

[Young Inexperience misjudges, no doubt]

[Life has enough of trouble]

[Observe thy Dreams.]

[Liberality's much in vogue]

[If we had neither church nor throne]

[One who can see without seeming to see,—]

[Look close at your bills; do you find no cheat?]

[When changes must be granted, 'tis the knowing Statesman's plan]

[I never write from personal spite]

[In greater things or less]

[Herb Duty in life's common ground hath root]

[“Fool's Parsley” is rank poison; learn to know]

[If I could smile]

[If successful thou wouldst be]

[Boldly praise; and some will hear thee.]

[Money matters not at twenty]

[O world, if I had known you long ago]

[Dear Son, I say to you]

[How many things would be ridiculous]

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[Earth's night is where she rolls]

[By and by, we shall meet]

[Here they are: how little they are!]

[Pleasure, torture, victory, crime,—]

[“Weary your life was, day by day]

[How swift the days do pass!]

[Hast ever chanced to stare aghast]

[Dull and dumb]

[Perception, Will, Personality]

[Why ever asking “why?” you cry; and I]

[Needs and greeds and ties and lies]

[Out of the land of dreams and youth, alas!]

[Lost chance—never again]

[Soon life ends]

[Who will sorrow when I die?]

[Do what wilt with me]

[“I'm learning, every day.”]

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[Life, after all, is here, and so are we]

[“No absolute right or wrong: what test?”]

[Have Heaven and Earth given a glad hour to thee?]

[Nature's no niggard; if the truth were known]

[When living rightly here below]

[The highest-natured men—the Best—]

[Silent the Earth whirls on her way]

[Quick smiles, sharp tears]

[There's plenty of credit in life at first]

[Good luck and bad luck come to all]

[Good luck's no use unless you can]

[Good Luck, the merry rambler, shuns]

[Love first, Work second]

[Flung out of Dreamland into cold harsh Day]

[For bodily or mental food]

[The healthy man loves life; you love it not]

[Let not man, ignorant and weak]

[To what good end shall ear be lent]

[In every trouble, say—]

[How is it that Man's mere phantasy]

[How easily go things astray!]

[In the midst of labour and folly and strife]

[“All away?”]

Positive truth.

[Be not impatient, O Soul]

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[Here must I stay awhile, against my will]

[“Nation of Shopkeepers”—how base a name!]

[A whore that's gentle, mild, and sweet]

[Soldiers have fame, and harlots infamy]

[Hireling Soldier, Priest, and Woman]

[Many things flash across the town-bred mind]

[The Workers' Revolution must begin]

[Old folk, tho' weak, will serve you best: of late]

[Is idleness indeed so black a crime?]

[O the buzz and clack and clatter]

[The Century gallops, glorying itself]

[In the Great City, as 'twere Hell]

[One Cockney you despise; four million such]

[A bat-wing'd Cupid takes his flight]

[Stir and change from morn till night]

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[Here we've wander'd some few hours]

[The metal sleeps in its hidden vein]

[We count men subject to mortality]

[If I must die when all is said and done]

[If we saw these things clear, what then?]

[A skeleton typifies Death.]

[What! am I too grown old? How days have hasted!]

[A mystic tracery of Stars]

[All things freely flow]

[O young Man! cast off cowardice]

[I hear the hum of earth, alive and merry]

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[If a single verse you find]

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[Now, little Book, go thy ways!]

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[A base and selfish discontent]

A base and selfish discontent
From hell is sent;
A noble discontent is given
Direct from Heaven.
That, cowardice and low desires
Fill with unrest;
This, the soul's longing that aspires
To find the Best.

[Give us all under, and above, the Moon]

Give us all under, and above, the Moon;
And we should tire of all so plaguy soon!
What do we ask then? Just a thought, no more:
A skiff to waft us from this mortal shore.

[How different is the life within our breast]

How different is the life within our breast
From what we seem to those who know us best!

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[O heroes, ye comfort my brotherly heart!]

O heroes, ye comfort my brotherly heart!
O Scoundrels, too often with you is my part!

[When the vile and the noble he juggles to mix]

When the vile and the noble he juggles to mix,
That is one of Mephisto's most damnable tricks.

[I do not show]

I do not show
All myself to you;
But as far as I go
I tell you true.
The worst and best of me
No eye doth ever see.

[That base curmudgeon who in Nelson's stead]

That base curmudgeon who in Nelson's stead
Was made an earl (the one true Nelson dead),
And flung poor generous Emma to the dogs,
Would sooner when his hour approach'd, I'll swear,
Have chosen Erebus's fiery bogs
Than Heav'n, if sure to meet Horatio there.

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[Berries, and also seeds]

Berries, and also seeds,
Out of moments and moods they have sprung.
Pearls, or only glass beads,
On a thread of life they are strung.

[Good Reader, were I but in Greek]

Good Reader, were I but in Greek,
For wit and wisdom you might seek
In many readings, not thus put
Me by with half my leaves uncut.

[One or two at a time]

One or two at a time
Give your soul some;
A little dose of rhyme;
More is not wholesome.