Short Poems

That Love last long; let it thy first care be
To find a Wife, that is most fit for Thee.
Be She too wealthy, or too poore; be sure,
Love in extreames, can never long endure.

Trip and go, heave and ho,
Up and down, to and fro,
From the town to the grove,
Two and two, let us rove
A-maying, a-playing:
Love hath no gainsaying:
So merrily trip and go.

In Jiaozhi the weather is strange,
The cold comes slowly, the warmth hurries back again
In mid-winter mountain fruits are ripe,
In the first month wildflowers blossom.
Dusky fogs arise from the monsoons,
Light frosts bring down peals of thunder.
My homeland, over ten thousand miles away—
Thoughts of it twice what they once were.

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fine hog;
Home again, home again, joggety jog.

O baby, where you been so long? Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
O baby, where you been so long? O baby, where you been so long?

O honey, let your hair hang down, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
O honey, let your hair hang down, O honey, let your hair hang down.

O honey, your hair grows too long, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
O honey, your hair grows too long, O honey, your hair grows too long.

The Comic Bard is supposed to sigh
For the skill and the power to make you cry;
He's supposed to yearn, when he has the time,
To make you sob as you read his rhyme.
That thought in many a bard may be;
I only know how the thing strikes me.
For mine aim is low, mine ambish atomic:
I'm tickled to death when they call me comic.

To every hearth a little fire,
To every board a little feast,
To every heart a joy,
To every child a toy,
Shelter for bird and beast.

The ancient pond!
A frog plunged—splash!

The sea is wild! The Milky Way extends
Far over to the island of Sado.

NO FUNERAL GLOOM , my dears, when I am gone,
Corpse-gazings, tears, black raiment, graveyard grimness.
Think of me as withdrawn into the dimness,
Yours still, you mine.
Remember all the best of our past moments and forget the rest,
And so to where I wait come gently on.