William Cosmo Monkhouse

PLAY me a march, low-ton’d and slow—a march for a silent tread,
Fit for the wandering feet of one who dreams of the silent dead,
Lonely, between the bones below and the souls that are overhead.Here for a while they smil’d and sang, alive in the interspace,
Here with the grass beneath the foot, and the stars above the face,…

UNDER her gentle seeing,
In her delicate little hand,
They placed the Book of Being,
To read and understand.The Book was mighty and olden,…

Small traveler from an unseen shore,
By mortal eye ne'er seen before,
To you, good-morrow.
You are as fair a little dame…

There was a young lady named Laura,
Who went to the wilds of Angora,
She came back on a goat
With a beautiful coat,…

NOW, sitting by her side, worn out with weeping,
Behold, I fell to sleep, and had a vision,
Wherein I heard a wondrous Voice intoning:Crying aloud, “The Master on His throne
Openeth now the seventh seal of wonder,…

I would not wish thee other than thou art;
I love thee, love, so well in every part,
That had I power to change thee
In form or face or mind,…

There once was an old monk of Basing,
Whose salads were something amazing;
But he told his confessor
That Nebuchadnezzar…

There was a young lady of Wilts,
Who walked up to Scotland on stilts;
When they said it was shocking
To show so much stocking…

There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside –…

HOW slowly creeps the hand of Time
On the old clock’s green-mantled face!
Yea, slowly as those ivies climb,
The hours roll round with patient pace;…

There once was a girl of Lahore,
The same shape behind as before;
As no one knew where
To offer a chair,…

Sing a song of Spring-time,
The world is going round,
Blown by the south wind:
Listen to its sound.…

True — there are books and books. There’s Gray,
For instance, and there’s Bacon;
There’s Longfellow, and Monstrelet,
And also Colton’s “ Lacon,”…

There once was an old man of Lyme
Who married three wives at a time,
When asked, "Why a third?"
He replied, "One's absurd!…

WHO remains in London,
In the streets with me,
Now that Spring is blowing
Warm winds from the sea;…

Прекрасная девушка с Тибра
С улыбкой уселась на тигра.
Опасные игры!
Наездница – в тигре,…

CHILDREN indeed are we—children that wait
Within a wondrous dwelling, while on high
Stretch the sad vapors and the voiceless sky;
The house is fair, yet all is desolate…

THERE is a singing in the summer air,
The blue and brown moths flutter o’er the grass,
The stubble bird is creaking in the wheat,
And perch’d upon the honeysuckle-hedge…

TO the Wake of O’Hara
Came company;
All St. Patrick’s Alley
Was there to see,…

HOW many colors here do we see set,
Like rings upon God’s finger? Some say three,
Some four, some six, some seven. All agree
To left of red, to right of violet,…

BRIGHT Eyes, Light Eyes! Daughter of a Fay!
I had not been a wedded wife a twelvemonth and a day,
I had not nurs’d my little one a month upon my knee,
When down among the blue-bell banks rose elfins three times three,…