John Bannister Tabb Poems

'Thistle-down, Thistle-down whither away?
Will you not longer abide?'
'Nay, we have wedded the winds to-day,
And home with the rovers we ride.'
...

When Barrel-organs with us stayed,
The Monkey danced, the Master played;
But comes the Pianola,
And now the Monkey has a chance
...

At Christmas time from clime to clime
Each star to star doth sweetly chime,
Till all the heavens are ringed with rhyme
...

Let my heart the cradle be
Of Thy bleak Nativity!
Tossed by wintry tempests wild,
...

A squirrel, while he sprang from tree to tree,
Cried to a skunk below, 'Pray, look at me:
There's no such grace nor such agility
...

Sing it, Mother! sing it low:
Deem it not an idle lay.
In the heart 't will ebb and flow
All the life-long way.
...

O leaf, against the twilight seen,
Move not; for at thy side
Gleams, trembling lest thou intervene,
My hope, my star, my guide.
...

'I can't, for my life,'
Quacked the Drake to his wife,
'Tell which of our children are males.'
Said the Duck with a smile,
...

Can you, sweet roses, ever take
A breath of other roses?
'Alas, your nosegay we can make,
But none of us have noses.'
...

'You give me no rest,' growled the Patient.
'I cannot,' retorted the Pill.
'In your stomach to be
Is so dreadful to me
...