Poetry Friday--Child Verse: Poems Grave & Gay

I think, perhaps, spring will be sticking around from this point on. The earlier part of March was a horror show with its multiple nor'easters, but the past few days have seen a bit of sunshine and warmth. To celebrate the change in the weather, Easter, and the start of National Poetry Month, I'm resurrecting some little ditties from Child Verse: Poems Grave & Gay by John B. Tabb, first published in 1899.

Many of the poems were published in the children's magazines that flourished at the time, titles such as St. Nicholas and the Youth's Companion. The poems could easily be enjoyed by today's children. I'm particularly fond of the punning!

Here are a few that I hope will brighten your day:

A DUET

A LITTLE yellow Bird above,
A little yellow Flower below;
The little Bird can sing the love
That Bird and Blossom know;
The Blossom has no song nor wing,
But breathes the love he cannot sing.


A LEGACY

DO you remember, little cloud,
This morning when you lay—
A mist along the river—what
The waters had to say?

And how the many-coloured flowers
That on the margin grew,
All promised when the day was done
To leave their tints to you?


BICYCLES! TRICYCLES!

BICYCLES! Tricycles! Nay, to shun laughter,
Try cycles first, and buy cycles after;
For surely the buyer deserves but the worst
Who would buy cycles, failing to try cycles first.


A RUB

'TWIXT Handkerchief and Nose
A difference arose;
And a tradition goes
That they settled it by blows.


HOSPITALITY

SAID a Snake to a Frog with a wrinkled skin,
"As I notice, dear, that your dress is thin,
And a rain is coming, I'll take you in."


WASHINGTON'S RUSE

WHEN Georgie would not go to bed,
If some one asked him why,
"What is the use?" he gravely said,
"You know I cannot lie."

Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe will be hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up this week!