Remonstrance with the Snails

    YE little snails,
    With slippery tails,
    Who noiselessly travel
    Along this gravel,
By a silvery path of slime unsightly,
I learn that you visit my pea-rows nightly.
    Felonious your visit, I guess!
      And I give you this...

Poet: Anonymous
The Chariot of Cuchullin

From the Ancient Irish by William Hamilton Drummond
From “The Breach of the Plain of Muirhevney”

THE CAR, 1 light-moving, I behold,
Adorned with gems and studs of gold;
Ruled by the hand of skilful guide,
Swiftly—and swiftly—see it glide...

Poet: Anonymous
Flotsam and Jetsam

The Sea crashed over the grim gray rocks,
  It thundered beneath the height,
It swept by reef and sandy dune,
It glittered beneath the harvest moon,
  That bathed it in yellow light.

Shell, and sea-weed, and sparkling stone,
  It flung on the...

Poet: Anonymous
The Indian Weed

This Indian weed, now withered quite,
Though green at noon, cut down at night,
      Shows thy decay,—
      All flesh is hay:
  Thus think, and drink 1 tobacco.

The pipe, so lily-like and weak,
Does thus thy mortal state bespeak;
      ...

Poet: Anonymous
To a Skeleton

   [The Ms. of this poem, which appeared in 1820, was said to have been found in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, near a perfect human skeleton. It was published in the Morning Chronicle. The author was never discovered, although a reward of fifty guineas was offered.]...

Poet: Anonymous
Books

From “The Kaléder of Sheperdes,” 1528

HE that many bokes redys,
Cunnyinge shall he be.
Wysedome is soone caught;
In many leues it is sought:
But slouth, that no boke bought,
For reason taketh no thought;
His thryfte cometh behynde.
Poet: Anonymous
Anne Hathaway

To the Idol of My Eye and Delight of My Heart, Anne Hathaway 1

WOULD ye be taught, ye feathered throng,
With love’s sweet notes to grace your song,
To pierce the heart with thrilling lay,
Listen to mine Anne Hathaway!
She hath a way to sing so clear,...

Poet: Anonymous
Lord Lovel

Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate,
  Combing his milk-white steed;
When up came Lady Nancy Belle,
  To wish her lover good speed, speed,
  To wish her lover good speed.

“Where are you going, Lord Lovel?” she said,
  “Oh! where are you going...

Poet: Anonymous
Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale

Come, listen to me, you gallants so free,
  All you that love mirth for to hear,
And I will tell you of a bold outlaw,
  That lived in Nottinghamshire.

As Robin Hood in the forest stood,
  All under the greenwood tree,
There he was aware of a...

Poet: Anonymous
The Wearing of the Green

O PADDY 1 dear, an’ did you hear the news that ’s goin’ round?
The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick’s Day no more we ’ll keep; his colors can’t be seen:
For there ’s a cruel law agin’ the wearin’ of the green.
I met with Napper Tandy...

Poet: Anonymous