The darlings of the doorstep have no rights Tho' rigged with names that old resorts would cheer; They see the tawny rosebud tread the nights, And go unclocked -- a garden Guinevere. Believing in the butter and the bread, They peer beyond the frontiers of a frown; Betimes they list to angels deeply read, Then turn those vellumed versions upside down. They long to trade a flathouse for a Troy, The foreground of a doorstep for a fen; They would -- but their tough mothers take a joy In saying: "Cleopatra's only ten." Cleopatra -- Cleopatra, Do you see the Pharos Light? Do you think that Caesar's galley Will make the Nile tonight? Cleopatra -- Cleopatra, You were always mother's hope; There's a galley in the bathroom -- And a little piece of soap. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE PROSPECT OF PLANTING ARTS AND LEARNING IN AMERICA by GEORGE BERKELEY THE IMMORTAL MIND by GEORGE GORDON BYRON AND WHAT SHALL YOU SAY? by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR. POETASTER: SONG (4) by BEN JONSON FESTE'S SONG (1), FR. TWELFTH NIGHT by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE WALKER OF THE SNOW by CHARLES DAWSON SHANLY A MORNING THOUGHT by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL |