I spied John Mouldy in his celler,
Deep down twenty steps of stone;
In the dusk he sat
Smiling there all alone.
He read no book, he snuffed no candle;
The rats ran in, the rats ran out,
And far and near, the drip of
Went whisp'ring about.
The dusk was still, with dew a-falling,
I saw the Dog-star bleak and grim,
I saw a slim brown rat of
Creep over him.
I spied John Mouldy in his celler,
Deep down twenty steps of stone;
In the dusk he sat
Smiling there all alone.
This poem taken from the book "People" in the Poems and Pictures series.
Ed Dennis saunders / Vincent Oliver Pub Evans Brothers,
London [page 16]
