William Schwenck Gilbert Poems

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

GODS
...

The bravest names for fire and flames
And all that mortal durst,
Were GENERAL JOHN and PRIVATE JAMES,
Of the Sixty-seventy-first.
...

Vast empty shell!
Impertinent, preposterous abortion!
With vacant stare,
And ragged hair,
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BABETTE she was a fisher gal,
With jupon striped and cap in crimps.
She passed her days inside the Halle,
Or catching little nimble shrimps.
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I stole the Prince, and I brought him here,
And left him, gaily prattling
With a highly respectable Gondolier,
Who promised the Royal babe to rear,
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Letters, letters, letters, letters!
Some that please and some that bore,
Some that threaten prison fetters
(Metaphorically, fetters
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There grew a little flower
'Neath a great oak tree:
When the tempest 'gan to lower
Little heeded she:
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The earth has armies plenty,
And semi-warlike bands,
I dare say there are twenty
In European lands;
...

On a tree by a river a little tomtit
Sang "Willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And I said to him, "Dicky-bird, why do you sit
Singing 'Willow, titwillow, titwillow'?
...

IN all the towns and cities fair
On Merry England's broad expanse,
No swordsman ever could compare
With THOMAS WINTERBOTTOM HANCE.
...