Out of the old house, Nancy—moved up into the new;
All the hurry and worry is just as good as through.
Only a bounden duty remains for you and I—
And that ’s to stand on the doorstep here, and bid the old house good-by.
What a shell we ’ve lived in, these nineteen or twenty years!
Wonder it had n’t smashed in, and tumbled about our ears;
Wonder...
In days when George the Third was King
And ruled the Old Dominion,
And Law and Fashion owned the sway
Of Parliament’s opinion,
A good ship brought across the sea
A treasure fair and fine,—
Miss Nancy’s gown from London town,
The latest Court design!
The plaited waist from neck to belt
Scarce measured half a...
Out of the old house, Nancy—moved up into the new;
All the hurry and worry is just as good as through.
Only a bounden duty remains for you and I—
And that ’s to stand on the doorstep here, and bid the old house good-bye.
What a shell we ’ve lived in, these nineteen or twenty years!
Wonder it hadn’t smashed in, and tumbled about our ears;
Wonder...
From “The Bab Ballads”
’T WAS on the shores that round our coast
From Deal to Ramsgate span,
That I found alone, on a piece of stone,
An elderly naval man.
His hair was weedy, his beard was long,
And weedy and long was he;
And I heard this wight on the shore recite,
In a singular minor key:—
“O, I am a...
To Nancy F——
How can I help thy Husbands copying Me
Should that make difference twixt me & Thee
