THE bells go chiming O'er Germany I sit here rhyming... If fun were funny, And love lived long, And always honey Were sweet on the tongue, Would life be better Or freedom free? If each love-letter Spelt loyalty, If we didn't go timing The dance with a fetter? If gold were true gold For alchemists —I sit here rhyming— And all were new gold In morning mists? Would laughter measure The step of life If each took pleasure In each's wife? If much were undone In what we see And we built up London In High Germany; Without much pity For crushed out grain We'd fling the city Across this plain— A phantom city Like old Cokayne— Where old dead passions, Come true again And old time fashions Be new again, Where jests once witty Would start again, And long lost pity Take heart again. So I sit rhyming Of fun to be, And the bells all go chiming O'er High Germany. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SCARE-FIRE by ROBERT HERRICK THE PRETTY MILKMAID by MOTHER GOOSE IN BATTLE by ABUL HASAN OF BADAJOZ THE TRANSFORMATION OF A TEXAS GIRL by JAMES BARTON ADAMS THE STORY OF ZERBIN AND ISABELLA, FR. ORLANDO FURIOSO by LUDOVICO (LODOVICO) ARIOSTO |