The Penguin Book of English Verse

by Paul Keegan

For the flowers are great blessings.

  For the Lord made a Nosegay in the meadow with his disciples and preached upon the lily.

  For the angels of God took it out of his hand and carried it to the Height.

  For a man cannot have publick spirit, who is void of private benevolence.

  For there is no Height in which there are not flowers.

  For flowers have great virtues for all the senses.

  For the flower glorifies God and the root parries the adversary.

  For the flowers have their angels even the words of God’s Creation.

  For the warp and woof of flowers are worked by perpetual moving spirits.

  For flowers are good both for the living and the dead.

  For there is a language of flowers.

  For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers.

  For elegant phrases are nothing but flowers.

  For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.

  For flowers are medicinal.

  For flowers are musical in ocular harmony.

  For the right names of flowers are yet in heaven. God make gard’ners better nomenclators.

  For the Poorman’s nosegay is an introduction to a Prince.

  (… )

  For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.

  For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.

  For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.

  For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.

  For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.

  For he rolls upon prank to work it in.

  For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.

  For this he performs in ten degrees.

  For first he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean.

  For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.

  For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the fore paws extended.

  For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.

  For fifthly he washes himself.

  For Sixthly he rolls upon wash.

  For Seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.

  For Eighthly he rubs himself against a post.

  For Ninthly he looks up for his instructions.

  For Tenthly he goes in quest of food.

  For having consider’d God and himself he will consider his neighbour.

  For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.

  For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it chance.

  For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.

  For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.

  For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.

  For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.

  For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life

  For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.

  For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

  For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.

  For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.

  For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.

  For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat.

  For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.

  For every house is incompleat without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

  For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

  For every family had one cat at least in the bag.

  For the English Cats are the best in Europe.

  For he is the cleanest in the use of his fore-paws of any quadrupede.

  For the dexterity of his defence is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.

  For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.

  For he is tenacious of his point.

  For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.

  For he knows that God is his Saviour.

  For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

  For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.

  For he is of the Lord’s poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence-perpetuall – Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.

  For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.

  For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat.

  For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in musick.

  For he is docile and can learn certain things.

  For he can set up with gravity which is patience upon approbation.

  For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.

  For he can jump over a stick which is patience upon proof positive.

  For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.

  For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.

  For he can catch the cork and toss it again.

  For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.

  For the former is affraid of detection.

  For the latter refuses the charge.

  For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.

  For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.

  For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.

  For he killed the Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.

  For his ears are so acute that they sting again.

  For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.

  For by stroaking of him I have found out electricity.

  For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.

  For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.

  For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.

  For, tho he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.

  For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadrupede.

  For he can tread to all the measures upon the musick.

  For he can swim for life.

  For he can creep.

  (1939)

  1763

  CHRISTOPHER SMART from A Song to David

  O DAVID, highest in the list

  Of worthies, on God’s ways insist,

  The genuine word repeat:

  Vain are the documents of men,

  And vain the flourish of the pen

  That keeps the fool’s conceit.

  PRAISE above all – for praise prevails;

  Heap up the measure, load the scales,

  And good to goodness add:

  The gen’rous soul her Saviour aids,

  But peevish obloquy degrades;

  The Lord is great and glad.

  For ADORATION all the ranks

  Of angels yield eternal thanks,

  And DAVID in the midst;

  With God’s good poor, which, last and least

  In man’s esteem, thou to thy feast,

  O blessed bride-groom, bidst.

  For ADORATION seasons change,

  And order, truth, and beauty range,

  Adjust, attract, and fill:

  The grass the polyanthus cheques;

  And polish’d porphyry reflects,

  By the descending rill.

  Rich almonds colour to the prime

  For ADORATION; tendrils climb,

  And fruit-trees pledge their gems;

  And Ivis with her gorgeous vest

  Builds for her eggs her cunning nest,

  And bell-flowers bow their stems.

  With vinous syrup cedars spout;

/>   From rocks pure honey gushing out,

  For ADORATION springs:

  All scenes of painting croud the map

  Of nature; to the mermaid’s pap

  The scaled infant clings.

  The spotted ounce and playsome cubs

  Run rustling ’mongst the flow’ring shrubs,

  And lizards feed the moss;

  For ADORATION beasts embark,

  While waves upholding halcyon’s ark

  No longer roar and toss.

  While Israel sits beneath his fig,

  With coral root and amber sprig

  The wean’d advent’rer sports;

  Where to the palm the jasmin cleaves,

  For ADORATION ’mongst the leaves

  The gale his peace reports.

  Increasing days their reign exalt,

  Nor in the pink and mottled vault

  Th’ opposing spirits tilt;

  And, by the coasting reader spied,

  The silverlings and crusions glide

  For ADORATION gilt.

  For ADORATION rip’ning canes

  And cocoa’s purest milk detains

  The western pilgrim’s staff;

  Where rain in clasping boughs inclos’d,

  And vines with oranges dispos’d,

  Embow’r the social laugh.

  Now labour his reward receives,

  For ADORATION counts his sheaves

  To peace, her bounteous prince;

  The nectarine his strong tint imbibes,

  And apples of ten thousand tribes,

  And quick peculiar quince.

  The wealthy crops of whit’ning rice,

  ‘Mongst thyine woods and groves of spice,

  For ADORATION grow;

  And, marshall’d in the fenced land,

  The peaches and pomegranates stand,

  Where wild carnations blow.

  The laurels with the winter strive;

  The crocus burnishes alive

  Upon the snow-clad earth:

  For ADORATION myrtles stay

  To keep the garden from dismay,

  And bless the sight from dearth.

  The pheasant shows his pompous neck;

  And ermine, jealous of a speck,

  With fear eludes offence:

  The sable, with his glossy pride,

  For ADORATION is descried,

  Where frosts the wave condense.

  The chearful holly, pensive yew,

  And holy thorn, their trim renew;

  The squirrel hoards his nuts:

  All creatures batten o’er their stores,

  And careful nature all her doors

  For ADORATION shuts.

  For ADORATION, DAVID’s psalms

  Lift up the heart to deeds of alms;

  And he, who kneels and chants,

  Prevails his passions to controul,

  Finds meat and med’cine to the soul,

  Which for translation pants.

  1764

  OLIVER GOLDSMITH from The Traveller, Or a Prospect of Society

  [Britain]

  Creation’s mildest charms are there combin’d,

  Extremes are only in the master’s mind;

  Stern o’er each bosom reason holds her state.

  With daring aims, irregularly great,

  Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,

  I see the lords of human kind pass by

  Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,

  By forms unfashion’d, fresh from Nature’s hand;

  Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,

  True to imagin’d right above controul,

  While even the peasant boasts these rights to scan,

  And learns to venerate himself as man.

  Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictur’d here,

  Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear;

  Too blest indeed, were such without alloy,

  But foster’d even by Freedom ills annoy:

  That independence Britons prize too high,

  Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie;

  The self dependent lordlings stand alone,

  All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown;

  Here by the bonds of nature feebly held,

  Minds combat minds, repelling and repell’d;

  Ferments arise, imprison’d factions roar,

  Represt ambition struggles round her shore,

  Till over-wrought, the general system feels

  Its motions stopt, or phrenzy fire the wheels.

  Nor this the worst. As nature’s ties decay,

  As duty, love, and honour fail to sway,

  Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law,

  Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe.

  Hence all obedience bows to these alone,

  And talent sinks, and merit weeps unknown;

  Till Time may come, when, stript of all her charms,

  The land of scholars, and the nurse of arms;

  Where noble stems transmit the patriot flame,

  Where kings have toil’d, and poets wrote for fame;

  One sink of level avarice shall lie,

  And scholars, soldiers, kings unhonor’d die.

  SAMUEL JOHNSON [Lines contributed to Goldsmith’s ‘The Traveller’]

  How small, of all that human hearts endure,

  That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.

  from Mother Goose’s Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle 1765

  ANONYMOUS High Diddle Diddle

  High diddle diddle,

  The cat and the fiddle,

  The cow jump’d over the moon;

  The little dog laugh’d

  To see such craft,

  And the dish ran away with the spoon.

  from THOMAS PERCY’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry

  ANONYMOUS Sir Patrick Spence

  The king sits in Dumferling toune,

  Drinking the blude-reid wine:

  O quhar will I get guid sailor,

  To sail this schip of mine?

  Up and spak an eldern knicht,

  Sat at the kings richt kne:

  Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor,

  That sails upon the se.

  The king has written a braid letter,

  10

  And sign’d it wi’ his hand;

  And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence,

  Was walking on the sand.

  The first line that Sir Patrick red,

  A loud lauch lauched he:

  15

  The next line that Sir Patrick red,

  The teir blinded his e’e.

  O quha is this has don this deid,

  This ill deid don to me;