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Blackberries
by William Allingham
Allingham, William (1824-1889)
[epigraph]
[dedication]
[section]
BRAMBLE-HILL.
[section]
DAWN.
[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]
To M. or N.
[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]
[section]
[The Theologian, propping faith with lies]
[By miracles these, and by mechanics those]
[Knowledge, exact and measurable, this]
Words, Words.
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]
Two Gulfs.
[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]
[section]
[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]
A Dream.
Another Dream.
[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]
[section]
[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]
Fidelity.
[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]
[Is it true]
[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]
[section]
[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]
[section]
A QUESTION.
Too Practical to be thought of.
Patriotism.
In Snow.
[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]
To a Primrose.
[The English Nation is my vexation]
[A poet sits at ease]
Mother Shipton.
[section]
[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]
Dead Salt.
[I cannot see, but still I can conceive]
[O the swarm of trifles]
[How obey, yet be autocrat still?]
[section]
[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]
Sportsman.
[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]
[section]
[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!]
[section]
[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]
To a Writer.
[I have my old Lempriere and new Doctor Smith in the study]
[This is worth noting: wit's controll'd by dulness]
Writing.
Prim.
Book and Author.
PLUS ULTRA.
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]
Books.
[Writing is now an adjunct to “the Trade;”]
Two Visitors to the Printing Exhibition.
[section]
[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]
[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]
[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.]
[section]
[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]
[section]
[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]
[section]
Grubb.
An Incalculable Man.
Squirmley.
Mellita.
A Distinguished Man.
[I loved A. B. yet my praise was cool.]
Promptus.
Long Shadow.
Dictatorius.
Veterator.
Profit and Loss.
Dorr.
Corpulentus.
Jactator.
Dives.
Flibb.
[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]
George.
Donans.
Tumidus.
Frank Rascal.
Jay.
Grunch.
Brisk.
Click.
Tompkins.
Crœsulus.
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.
[section]
[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]
Vegetarianism.
[“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]
[section]
[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]
A Wealthy Man.
[section]
[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.”]
[section]
[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]
[section]
[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]
[section]
[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]
[section]
[If a single verse you find]
[section]
[Now, little Book, go thy ways!]
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Blackberries
[B's wine is excellent—but you]
B's
wine is excellent—but you
Must swallow his conversation too.
Blackberries
