Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TITTLE-TATTLE by JOHN GALSWORTHY

First Line: TITTLE-TATTLE! SCANDAL AND JAPES
Last Line: TO THE TUNE OF TITTLE-TATTLE!

TITTLE-TATTLE! Scandal and japes,
Gibe, and gossip, and folly's rattle!
Ringed to fashion, caught like apes
In your cage of tittle-tattle!

Mean your skies,
And mean the ways you tread;
The meanness of your eyes
Is never fully fed.
You that have birth
In gold and grovellings!
You superfluity
Of miserable earth,
You trousered things
And women without souls --
Out of the sunlight
To your holes!

Tittle-tattle! Whisper and pry!
Sneers and snigger, and empty prattle!
Truth and Charity into a lie
To the tune of tittle-tattle!



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