Page:The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats, 1899.djvu/281

Rh Of Fish, a pretty Kettle,

A Kettle!

There was a naughty Boy,

And a naughty Boy was he.

He ran away to Scotland

The people for to see—

Then he found

That the ground

Was as hard,

That a yard

Was as long,

That a song

Was as merry,

That a cherry

Was as red—

That lead

Was as weighty,

That fourscore

Was as eighty,

That a door

Was as wooden

As in England—

So he stood in his shoes

And he wonder'd,

He wonder'd,

He stood in his shoes

And he wonder'd.

ken ye what I met the day

Out oure the Mountains

A coming down by craggies gray

An mossie fountains—

Ah goud-hair'd Marie yeve I pray

Ane minute's guessing—

For that I met upon the way

Is past expressing.

As I stood where a rocky brig

A torrent crosses

I spied upon a misty rig

A troup o' Horses—

And as they trotted down the glen

I sped to meet them

To see if I might know the Men

To stop and greet them.

First Willie on his sleek mare came

At canting gallop

His long hair rustled like a flame

On board a shallop,

Then came his brother Rab and then

Young Peggy's Mither

And Peggy too—adown the glen

They went togither—

I saw her wrappit in her hood

Frae wind and raining—

Her cheek was flush wi' timid blood

Twixt growth and waning—

She turn'd her dazed eyes full oft

For there her Brithers

Came riding with her Bridegroom soft

And mony ithers.

Young Tam came up and eyed me quick

With reddened cheek—

Braw Tom was daffed like a chick—

He couldna speak—

Ah, Marie, they are all gane hame

Through blustering weather

An' every heart is full on flame

An' light as feather.

Ah! Marie, they are all gone hame

Frae happy wadding,

Whilst I—Ah is it not a shame?

Sad tears am shedding.

gentle folks who owe a grudge

To any living thing

Open your ears and stay your t(r)udge

Whilst I in dudgeon sing.

The Gadfly he hath stung me sore—

O may he ne'er sting you!

But we have many a horrid bore,—

He may sting black and blue.

Has any here an old gray Mare

With three legs all her store,

O put it to her Buttocks bare

And straight she 'll run on four.

Has any here a Lawyer suit

Of 1743,

Take Lawyer's nose and put it to 't

And you the end will see.

Is there a Man in Parliament

Dum(b)founder'd in his speech,

O let his neighbour make a rent

And put one in his breech.

O Lowther how much better thou

Hadst figur'd t' other day

When to the folks thou mad'st a bow

And hadst no more to say.

If lucky Gadfly had but ta'en

His seat