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Charles Stuart Calverley (22 December 1831 – 17 February 1884 / Martley, Worchestershire)
Quotations
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'''Tis not that thy mien is stately,
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. Lines on Hearing the Organ (l. 93-94). . . New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Oxford University Press.
'Tis not that thy tones are soft;''
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''Grinder, who serenely grindest
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. Lines on Hearing the Organ (l. 1-2). . . New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Oxford University Press.
At my door the Hundredth Psalm,''
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''Tell me, Grinder, if thou grindest
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. Lines on Hearing the Organ (l. 19-20). . . New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Oxford University Press.
Always, always out of tune.''
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''But I've heard mankind abuse thee;
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. Lines on Hearing the Organ (l. 97-100). . . New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, The. Kingsley Amis, ed. (1978) Oxford University Press.
And perhaps it's rather strange,
But I thought that I would choose thee
For encomium, as a change.''
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''Go mad, and beat their wives;
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. "Ode to Tobacco." This is possibly a reference to a letter in the medical journal Lancet, Feb. 14, 1857: "[Dr. Webster] distinctly enumerates tobacco as one of the causes of insanity.... Two brothers in one family had become deranged from smoking tobacco, and in that state had committed suicide."
Plunge (after shocking lives)
Razors and carving knives
Into their gizzards.''
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''Her sheep follow'd her, as their tails did them.
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. The auld wife sat at her ivied door (l. 37-40). . . Norton Book of Light Verse, The. Russell Baker, ed. (1986) W. W. Norton & Company.
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And this song is consider'd a perfect gem,
And as to the meaning, it's what you please.''
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''The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair;
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), British poet. The auld wife sat at her ivied door (l. 21-24). ElL. Norton Book of Light Verse, The. Russell Baker, ed. (1986) W. W. Norton & Company.
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And I met with a ballad, I can't say where,
Which wholly consisted of lines like these.''
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