Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Which other authors do you enjoy? Discuss them here.
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:What a wonderful rhythm - a real pleasure to read and recite!
:D Thanks, Anita. Charles E. Carryl (1841 - 1920) was an American businessman who wrote 2 rollicking, zany fantasy books, after the manner of 'Lewis Carroll', for his son and daughter.

'Aurélien Arkadiusz'
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Funny that "Carryl" wrote in the manner of "Carroll"!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Well, Anita, I guess that like very many parents Mr. Carryl was prepared to grit his teeth and go that extra mile for his kids......I mean, one can't let 'em down, can one?
Herewith a further sampling, especially for all those 'friends of the h-o-r-s-e' out there:
  • ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
  • RIBSY THE CIRCUS HORSE'S POEM
    fromDAVY & THE GOBLIN” (1884)
    by Charles E. Carryl
  • It's very confining, this living in stables,
    And passing one's time among wagons and carts;
    I much prefer dining at gentlemen's tables,
    And living on turkeys and cranberry tarts.
  • I find with surprise that I'm constantly sneezing;
    I'm stiff in the legs, and I'm often for sale;
    And the blue-bottle flies, with their tiresome teasing,
    Are quite out of reach of my weary old tail.
  • As spry as a kid and as trim as a spider
    Was I in the days of the Turnip-top Hunt,
    When I used to get rid of the weight of my rider
    And canter contentedly in at the front.
  • I never was told that this jocular feature
    Of mine was a trick reprehensibly rude,
    And yet I was sold, like a commonplace creature,
    To work in a circus for lodgings and food.
  • Pray why, if you please, should a capable charger
    Perform on a ladder and prance in a show?
    And why should his knees be made thicker and larger
    By teaching him tricks that he'd rather not know?
  • Oh! why should a horse, for society fitted,
    Be doomed to employment so utterly bad,
    And why should a coarse-looking man be permitted
    To dance on his back on a top-heavy pad?
  • It made me a wreck, with no hope of improvement,
    Too feeble to race with an invalid crab;
    I'm wry in the neck, with a rickety movement
    Peculiarly suited for drawing a cab.
  • They pinch me with straps, and they bruise me with buckles,
    They drive me too rapidly over the stones; -
    A reason, perhaps, why a number of knuckles
    Have lately appeared on my prominent bones.
  • I dream of a spot which I used to roam over
    In infancy's days, with a frolicsome skip,
    Content with my lot, which was planted with clover,
    And never annoyed by the crack of a whip.
  • But I think my remarks will determine the question,
    Of why I am bony and thin as a rail;
    I'm off for some larks, to improve my digestion,
    And point the stern moral conveyed by my tail.
  • ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ah, one of my favourite dinner-time poems!

Gadzooks the Gadfly
Nair Snehalatha
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Nair Snehalatha »

''When Grandpa was a boy''---- is such a true poem ---written so very well :) :) :)
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Domino
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Domino »

UNCLE HUGH AND HIS MORAL

Many, many years ago,
A poor young maid was lost in the snow.
Her hair bedraggled, her clothes wet through,
She came to the house of Uncle Hugh.
The house was large (as houses go)
And looked quite eerie in the snow.
The maiden hesitated not,
For fear she did not give one jot.
She made her way to the great front door,
Prepared to give her life, or more.
If someone kind would let her stay,
She'd work in the kitchen to pay her way.
Now Uncle Hugh was a virile bloke,
Who looked upon chastity as a joke.
He said to the maid, ""Before I'm dead,
My girl, I'll have you in my bed."
And so, that night the deed was done -
Wicked Uncle had his fun.
So they both enjoyed nocturnal bliss,
Thus proving the moral of this story is:

If a poor young maid gets lost in the snow,
Uncle Hugh's is the place to go.
He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green.

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Domino
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Domino »

THE SAGA OF JENNY
from the musical "Lady in the Dark" by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin
originally sung by Gertrude Lawrence

There once was a girl called Jenny,
Whose virtues were varied and many,
Excepting that she was inclined
Always to make up her mind.
Her story has a moral
With which we cannot quarrel
As you will surely find:

Jenny made her mind up when she was three,
She herself was going to trim the Christmas tree.
Christmas Eve she lit the candles, tossed the tapers away.
Little Jenny was an orphan on Christmas Day.

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
She lost one dad and mother,
A sister and a brother,
But she would make up her mind.

Jenny made her mind up when she was twelve,
Into foreign languages she would delve,
But at seventeen it came to her as quite a blow,
That in twenty-seven laguages she couldn't say no.

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
To Jenny I'm beholden,
Her heart was big and golden,
But she would make up her mind.

Jenny mind her mind up at twenty-two,
To get herself a husband was the thing to do.
She got herself all dolled up in her satins and furs,
She found herself a husband - but he wasn't hers.

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
Deserved a bed of roses,
But history discloses
That she would make up her mind.

Jenny made her mind up at fifty-one,
She would write her memoirs before she was done.
The very day the book was published, history relates,
There were wives who shot their husbands in thirty-three states.

Poor jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
To Jenny I'm beholden,
Her heart was big and golden,
But she would make up her mind.

Jenny made her mind up at seventy-five,
She was going to be the oldest woman alive.
But gin and rum and destiny play such funny tricks,
And poor Jenny kicked the bucket at seventy-six.

Jenny and her story
Point the way to glory
To all man and womankind.
Anyone with vision
Comes to this decision -
Don't make up your mind!
He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green.

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Domino
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Domino »

IF
Written (1934) by Robert Hargreaves and Stanley J. Damerell to music composed by Tolchard Evans, who originally sang it

If - they made me a king,
I'd be but a slave to you.
If - I had everything,
I'd still be a slave to you.
If I ruled the night,
Stars and moon so bright,
Still I'd turn for light to you.

If - the world to me bowed,
Yet humbly I'd flee to you.
If - my friends were a crowd,
I'd turn in my need to you.
If I ruled the earth,
What would it be worth,
If I had not a right to you.

[Some later singers sang "If I had not allied to you" for the last line.]
He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green.

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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Lenoir »

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

One verse from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

  • SUSAN VAN DOOZEN
    by Joseph C. Lincoln
    from 'CAPE COD BALLADS'
I'll write, for I'm witty, a popular ditty,
To bring to me shekels and fame,
And the only right way one may write one to-day
Is to give it some Irish girl's name.
There's "Rosy O'Grady," that dear "steady lady,"
And sweet "Annie Rooney" and such,
But mine shall be nearly original, really,
For Susan Van Doozen is Dutch.

O Susan Van Doozen! the girl of my choos'n',
You stick in my bosom like glue;
While this you're perusin', remember I'm mus'n',
Sweet Susan Van Doozen, on you.
So don't be refus'n' my offer, and bruis'n'
A heart that is willing to woo;
And please be excus'n', not cold and refus'n',-
O Susan Van Doozen, please do!

Now through it I'll scatter - a quite easy matter -
Some lines that we all of us know,
How "The neighbors all cry as she passes them by,
'There's Susan, the pride of the row!'"
And something like "daisy" and "setting me crazy,"
- These lines the dear public would miss -
Then chuck a "sweetheart" in, and "never to part" in,
And end with a chorus like this:

O Susan Van Doozen! before I'd be los'n'
One glance from your eyes of sky-blue,
I vow I'd quit us'n' tobacco and booz'n',
(That word is not nice, it is true).
I wear out my shoes, 'n' I'm los'n' my roos'n'
My reason, I should say, dear Sue, -
So please change your views 'n' become my own Susan,
O Susan Van Doozen, please do!
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

  • 'Oft in the stilly night'
    by Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
    from Poems of Sentiment: III Memory
Oft in the stilly night,
  Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
  Of other days around me:
    The smiles, the tears,
    Of boyhood’s years,
  The words of love then spoken;
    The eyes that shone,
    Now dimmed and gone,
  The cheerful hearts now broken.
Thus in the stilly night,
  Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
  Of other days around me.
 
When I remember all
  The friends so linked together
I ’ve seen around me fall,
  Like leaves in wintry weather,
    I feel like one
    Who treads alone
  Some banquet-hall deserted,
    Whose lights are fled,
    Whose garlands dead,
  And all but he departed.
Thus in the stilly night,
  Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
  Of other days around me.
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Domino
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Domino »

Thanks, Aurelian. I just love Lincoln's "Susan Van Doozen". A tour de force in rhyming. It's a real - well, shall we say - doozie.

Dave
Last edited by Domino on 09 Jun 2014, 12:15, edited 1 time in total.
He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green.

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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Thanks, Domino. :D A doozie it is. :lol:

I enjoy Joseph C. Lincoln's humour in both his regional (Cape Cod) tales, and his poetry.

'Aurélien Arkadiusz' 8)
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Daisy »

I found this in a little magazine:

Good Books by Edgar Guest

Good books are friendly things to own.
If you are busy they will wait.
They will not call you on the phone
Or wake you if the hour is late.
They stand together row by row,
Upon the low shelf or the high.
But if you're lonesome this you know:
You have a friend or two nearby.

The fellowship of books is real,
They're never noisy when you're still.
They won't disturb you at your meal.
They'll comfort you when you are ill.
The lonesome hours they'll always share.
When slighted they will not complain.
And though for them you've ceased to care
Your constant friends they'll still remain.

Good books your faults will never see
Or tell about them round the town.
If you would have their company
You merely have to take them down.
They'll help you pass the time away,
They'll counsel give if that you need.
He has true friends for night and day
Who has a few good books to read.
'Tis loving and giving that makes life worth living.

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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Eddie Muir »

Some great verse on this thread. 'Good Books' by Edgar Guest is excellent and very true, Daisy. :D
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.

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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Indeed, Daisy, Eddie, a very apt poem by Edgar Guest.

'Aurélien Arkadiusz' :D
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