(FROM LETTER TO JAMES RICE, MARCH 24, 1818) OVER the hill and over the dale, And over the bourn to Dawlish-- Where Gingerbread Wives have a scanty sale And gingerbre[a]d nuts are smallish. Rantipole Betty she ran down a hill And ki[c]ked up her pettic[o]ats fairly Says I I'll be Jack if you will be Gill. So she sat on the Grass debonnairly. Here's somebody coming, here's somebody coming! Says I 'tis the Wind at a parley So without any fuss any hawing and humming She lay on the grass debonnai[r]ly. Here's somebody here and here's somebody there! Says I hold your tongue you young Gipsey. So she held her tongue and lay plump and fair And dead as a venus tipsy. O who wouldn't hie to Dawlish fair O who wouldn't stop in a Meadow O [who] would not rumple the daisies there And make the wild fern for a bed do. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PHOSPHORESCENT MAN by KAREN SWENSON BEYOND THE ATOM by JANICE BLANCHARD FIRST RHYMES by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN GHOSTS by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES LETTER TO JAMES TENNANT OF GLENCONNER by ROBERT BURNS ON BEARING THE CROSS by JOHN BYROM TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE GOLDEN WEDDING by EDWARD CARPENTER |