Come, let us set our careful breasts, Like Philomel, against the thorn, To aggravate the inward grief, That makes her accents so forlorn; The world has many cruel points, Whereby our bosoms have been torn, And there are dainty themes of grief, In sadness to outlast the morn,– True honor’s dearth, affection’s death, Neglectful pride, […]

By ev’ry sweet tradition of true hearts, Graven by Time, in love with his own lore; By all old martyrdoms and antique smarts, Wherein Love died to be alive the more; Yea, by the sad impression on the shore, Left by the drown’d Leander, to endear That coast for ever, where the billow’s roar Moaneth […]

The curse of Adam, the old curse of all, Though I inherit in this feverish life Of worldly toil, vain wishes, and hard strife, And fruitless thought, in Care’s eternal thrall, Yet more sweet honey than of bitter gall I taste, through thee, my Eve, my sweet wife. Then what was Man’s lost Paradise!–how rife […]

Look how the golden ocean shines above Its pebbly stones, and magnifies their girth; So does the bright and blessed light of Love Its own things glorify, and raise their worth. As weeds seem flowers beneath the flattering brine, And stones like gems, and gems as gems indeed, Ev’n so our tokens shine; nay, they […]

I. THE BROKEN DISH. What’s life but full of care and doubt With all its fine humanities, With parasols we walk about, Long pigtails, and such vanities. We plant pomegranate trees and things, And go in gardens sporting, With toys and fans of peacocks’ wings, To painted ladies courting. We gather flowers of every hue, […]

Good-Morning, Mr. What-d’ye-call! Well! here’s another pretty job! Lord help my Lady!–what a smash!–if you had only heard her sob! It was all through Mr. Lambert: but for certain he was winey, To think for to go to sit down on a table full of Chiney. “Deuce take your stupid head!” says my Lady to […]

Two swains or clowns–but call them swains– Whilst keeping flocks on Salisbury plains, For all that tend on sheep as drovers Are turned to songsters or to lovers, Each of the lass he call’d his dear, Began to carol loud and clear. First Huggins sang, and Duggins then, In the way of ancient shepherd men; […]

“A Day after the Fair.”–Old Proverb. John Day he was the biggest man Of all the coachman kind, With back too broad to be conceived By any narrow mind. The very horses knew his weight, When he was in the rear, And wished his box a Christmas box, To come but once a year. Alas! […]

Love, dearest Lady, such as I would speak, Lives not within the humor of the eye;– Not being but an outward phantasy, That skims the surface of a tinted cheek,– Else it would wane with beauty, and grow weak, As if the rose made summer,–and so lie Amongst the perishable things that die, Unlike the […]

I. ‘Twas in the prime of summer time, An evening calm and cool, And four-and-twenty happy boys Came bounding out of school: There were some that ran and some that leapt, Like troutlets in a pool. II. Away they sped with gamesome minds, And souls untouch’d by sin; To a level mead they came, and […]

No popular respect will I omit To do thee honor on this happy day, When every loyal lover tasks his wit His simple truth in studious rhymes to pay, And to his mistress dear his hopes convey. Rather thou knowest I would still outrun All calendars with Love’s,–whose date alway Thy bright eyes govern better […]

“Coming events cast their shadow before.” I had a vision in the summer light– Sorrow was in it, and my inward sight Ached with sad images. The touch of tears Gushed down my cheeks:–the figured woes of years Casting their shadows across sunny hours. Oh, there was nothing sorrowful in flowers Wooing the glances of […]

Love thy mother, little one! Kiss and clasp her neck again,– Hereafter she may have a son Will kiss and clasp her neck in vain. Love thy mother, little one! Gaze upon her living eyes, And mirror back her love for thee,– Hereafter thou mayst shudder sighs To meet them when they cannot see. Gaze […]

[Note: Written in 1835 after Hood’s disastrous voyage to Rotterdam, in which the ship was nearly lost, and Hood’s health was permanently affected.] Shall I rebuke thee, Ocean, my old love, That once, in rage, with the wild winds at strife, Thou darest menace my unit of a life, Sending my clay below, my soul […]

COMPOSED AT ROTTERDAM. I. I gaze upon a city,– A city new and strange,– Down many a watery vista My fancy takes a range; From side to side I saunter, And wonder where I am; And can you be in England, And I at Rotterdam! II. Before me lie dark waters In broad canals and […]

[Note: Written at Coblenz, where Hood and his family were then settled, in November 1835.] And has the earth lost its so spacious round, The sky its blue circumference above, That in this little chamber there is found Both earth and heaven–my universe of love! All that my God can give me, or remove, Here […]

[Note: Assigned by Hood’s son to the year 1835, but apparently only on conjecture.] Is there a bitter pang for love removed, O God! The dead love doth not cost more tears Than the alive, the loving, the beloved– Not yet, not yet beyond all hopes and fears! Would I were laid Under the shade […]

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ATHENAEUM. MY DEAR SIR–The following Ode was written anticipating the tone of some strictures on my writings by the gentleman to whom it is addressed. I have not seen his book; but I know by hearsay that some of my verses are characterized as “profaneness and ribaldry”–citing, in proof, the […]

ON HER BIRTHDAY. [Note: Written at Ostend in September 1839.] Dear Fanny! nine long years ago, While yet the morning sun was low, And rosy with the Eastern glow The landscape smiled– Whilst lowed the newly-waken’d herds– Sweet as the early song of birds, I heard those first, delightful words, “Thou hast a Child!” Along […]

I. To trace the Kilmansegg pedigree To the very root of the family tree Were a task as rash as ridiculous: Through antediluvian mists as thick As London fog such a line to pick Were enough, in truth, to puzzle old Nick, Not to name Sir Harris Nicolas. II. It wouldn’t require much verbal strain […]