Lives a white maid of surpassing virtue,
Gentle in manner and quiet and dutiful,
Combing her golden curls each morning
Before a window that looks out to hell;
That looks upon cesspools of mud, and mounds of refuse
and the offal of the shops.

Concerning English Gambling

One morning, at the season of Clear Weather,
As I sat alone in my Tea-House of the Refined White Lily,
A stranger of affable address approached me,
And showed me, with a multitude of argument,
To what advantage I should come
Were I to place the whole of my substance with him,
Even to my shirt,
As a token of my faith in Ice Cream Cornet for the Lincolnshire.

And because I would not do so,
He withdrew himself from me as from one of mean birth and behaviour,
Reviling me with the name of "No-Sport,"
And other characters of opprobrium.

But this person told him
That he carried always on written leaves
The words of his august father,
Concerning horses and women, and the wind in the hills
and the hooting of owls.

He did not tell him that he knew full well
That Ice Cream Cornet was a non-starter for the Lincolnshire.

Of Politicians

Upon a time the amiable Bill Hawkins
Married a fair wife, demure and of chaste repute,
Keeping closely from her, however,
Any knowledge of the manner of man he had been.

Upon the nuptial night,
Awaking and finding himself couched with a woman,
As had happened on divers occasions,
He arose, and dressed and departed,
Leaving at the couch's side four goodly coins.

But in the street,
Remembering the occasion and his present estate of marriage,
He returned with a haste of no-dignity,
Filled with emotions of an entirely disturbing nature,
Fear that his wife should discover his absence
And place evil construction upon it,
Being uppermost.

Entering stealthily, then, with the toes of the leopard,
With intention of quickly disrobing,
And rejoining the forsaken bride,
He perceived her sitting erect on the couch,
Biting shrewdly, with a distressing air of experience,
At one of the coins.

Even so it is when Big Politician meets Little Politician.

Of the Great White War

During the years when the white men fought each other,
I observed how the aged cried aloud in public places
Of honour and chivalry, and the duty of the young;
And how the young ceased doing the pleasant things of you