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Ronsard to His Mistress

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William Makepeace Thackeray
1811 –
1863
 

This poem is in the public domain. 

William Makepeace Thackeray, born July 18, 1811, was an English writer best known for his novels, particularly The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (The Mershon Company Publishers, 1852) and Vanity Fair (Bradbury and Evans, 1848). While in school, Thackeray began writing poems, which he published in a number of magazines, chiefly Fraser and Punch. He died on December 24, 1863.

About William Makepeace Thackeray
Themes
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Public Domain
About this Poem

From Ballads and Songs (London: Cassell and Company, 1896).

 

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More by this poet

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

A Tragic Story

  BY ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO.

 "—'s war Einer, dem's zu Herzen gieng."

  There lived a sage in days of yore
  And he a handsome pigtail wore;
  But wondered much and sorrowed more
       Because it hung behind him.

  He mused upon this curious case,
  And swore he'd change the pigtail's place,
  And have it hanging at his face,
       Not dangling there behind him.

  Says he, "The mystery I've found,—
  I'll turn me round,"—he turned him round;
       But still it hung behind him.

  Then round, and round, and out and in,
  All day the puzzled sage did spin;
  In vain—it mattered not 
William Makepeace Thackeray
2018

Commanders of the Faithful

  The Pope he is a happy man,
  His Palace is the Vatican,
  And there he sits and drains his can:
  The Pope he is a happy man.
  I often say when I’m at home,
  I’d like to be the Pope of Rome.

  And then there’s Sultan Saladin,
  That Turkish Soldan full of sin;
  He has a hundred wives at least,
  By which his pleasure is increased:
  I’ve often wished, I hope no sin,
  That I were Sultan Saladin.

  But no, the Pope no wife may choose,
  And so I would not wear his shoes;
  No wine may drink the proud Paynim,
  And so I’d rather not be him:
  My wife, my wine, I love, I hope,
  And 
William Makepeace Thackeray
2018

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