A Doe in the City

1811 –

1863

  Little KITTY LORIMER,
    Fair, and young, and witty,
  What has brought your ladyship
    Rambling to the City?

  All the Stags in Capel Court
    Saw her lightly trip it;
  All the lads of Stock Exchange
    Twigg'd her muff and tippet.

  With a sweet perplexity,
    And a mystery pretty,
  Threading through Threadneedle Street,
    Trots the little KITTY.

  What was my astonishment—
    What was my compunction,
  When she reached the Offices
    Of the Didland Junction!

  Up the Didland stairs she went,
    To the Didland door, Sir;
  Porters lost in wonderment,
    Let her pass before, Sir.

  "Madam," says the old chief Clerk,
    "Sure we can't admit ye."
  "Where's the Didland Junction deed?"
   Dauntlessly says KITTY.

  "If you doubt my honesty,
    Look at my receipt, Sir."
  Up then jumps the old chief Clerk,
    Smiling as he meets her.

  KITTY at the table sits
    (Whither the old Clerk leads her),
  "I deliver this," she says,
    "As my act and deed, Sir."

  When I heard these funny words
    Come from lips so pretty;
  This, I thought, should surely be
    Subject for a ditty.

  What! are ladies stagging it?
    Sure, the more's the pity;
  But I've lost my heart to her,—
    Naughty little KITTY.

This poem is in the public domain.

At the Zoo

First I saw the white bear, then I saw the black;
Then I saw the camel with a hump upon his back;
Then I saw the grey wolf, with mutton in his maw;
Then I saw the wombat waddle in the straw;
Then I saw the elephant a-waving of his trunk;
Then I saw the monkeys—mercy, how unpleasantly they smelt!

William Makepeace Thackeray

1863

The King of Yvetot

There was a king of Yvetot, Of whom renown hath little said, Who let all thoughts of glory go, And dawdled half his days a-bed; And every night, as night came round, By Jenny, with a nightcap crowned, Slept very sound: Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he! That's the kind of king for me. And every day it came to pass, That four lusty meals made he; And, step by step, upon an ass, Rode abroad, his realms to see; And wherever he did stir, What think you was his escort, sir? Why, an old cur. Sing ho, ho, ho !

William Makepeace Thackeray

2018

The Garret

     With pensive eyes the little room I view,
       Where, in my youth, I weathered it so long;
     With a wild mistress, a stanch friend or two,
       And a light heart still breaking into song:
     Making a mock of life, and all its cares,
       Rich in the glory of my rising sun,
     Lightly I vaulted up four pair of stairs,
       In the brave days when I was twenty-one.

     Yes; 'tis a garret—let him know't who will—
       There was my bed—full hard it was and small.
     My table there—and I decipher still
       Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall.
     Ye joys,

William Makepeace Thackeray

2018

Poems

A Doe in the City

More by this poet

At the Zoo

The King of Yvetot

The Garret

Poems

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A Doe in the City

More by this poet

At the Zoo

The King of Yvetot

The Garret

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