Ballade Poems
A Ballade Of Tobacco Smoke
by Alexander Anderson
What fretting loads we mortals bear
Through life, whose fading rainbows mock
And Time, who drives a splendid pair
Of steeds he never will unyoke,
Sweeps his lean fingers through our hair,
He scarcely leaves a decent lock,
Yet chide him not, if still he spare
The dreams seen through tobacco smoke.
We each must have our little care
To add by contrast to our joke,
......
A Ballade Of 'Churchwardens'
by Alexander Anderson
Why, hang it all, let life go by,
It is but bubbles we pursue;
They burst at last, and then we sigh
And pay what folly claims as due.
We have our time to smile and sigh,
Who knows the false from all the true?
Let us enjoy before we die,
Churchwardens and a friend or two.
For these are things that will not fly
Nor fade, as other pleasures do;
......
A Ballade Of Pipes
by Alexander Anderson
I like to see in graceful row
My modest pipes upon the wall,
For there they make a dainty show,
And ever ready at my call.
I praise them with a smoker's drawl
To friends, but when they go away
I put them back, and, free from thrall,
I take the ever-ready clay.
Your meerschaum makes the fancy glow
As up the bowl the colours crawl;
......
A Ballade Of An Anti-Puritan
by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
They spoke of Progress spiring round,
Of light and Mrs Humphrey Ward-
It is not true to say I frowned,
Or ran about the room and roared;
I might have simply sat and snored-
I rose politely in the club
And said, 'I feel a little bored;
Will someone take me to a pub?'
The new world's wisest did surround
......
A Ballade Of Waiting
by Archibald Lampman
No girdle hath weaver or goldsmith wrought
So rich as the arms of my love can be;
No gems with a lovelier lustre fraught
Than her eyes, when they answer me liquidly.
Dear lady of love, be kind to me
In days when the waters of hope abate,
And doubt like a shimmer on sand shall be,
In the year yet, Lady, to dream and wait.
Sweet mouth, that the wear of the world hath taught
......
Ballade
by François Villon
I know flies in milk
I know the man by his clothes
I know fair weather from foul
I know the apple by the tree
I know the tree when I see the sap
I know when all is one
I know who labors and who loafs
I know everything but myself.
I know the coat by the collar
......
A Ballade Of Waiting
by Archibald Lampman
No girdle hath weaver or goldsmith wrought
So rich as the arms of my love can be;
No gems with a lovelier lustre fraught
Than her eyes, when they answer me liquidly.
Dear lady of love, be kind to me
In days when the waters of hope abate,
And doubt like a shimmer on sand shall be,
In the year yet, Lady, to dream and wait.
Sweet mouth, that the wear of the world hath taught
......
A Ballade Of Suicide
by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall;
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours--on the wall--
Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"
The strangest whim has seized me. . . . After all
I think I will not hang myself to-day.
To-morrow is the time I get my pay--
......
A Ballade Of An Anti-Puritan
by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
They spoke of Progress spiring round,
Of light and Mrs Humphrey Ward-
It is not true to say I frowned,
Or ran about the room and roared;
I might have simply sat and snored-
I rose politely in the club
And said, 'I feel a little bored;
Will someone take me to a pub?'
The new world's wisest did surround
......
A Ballade Of Tobacco Smoke
by Alexander Anderson
What fretting loads we mortals bear
Through life, whose fading rainbows mock
And Time, who drives a splendid pair
Of steeds he never will unyoke,
Sweeps his lean fingers through our hair,
He scarcely leaves a decent lock,
Yet chide him not, if still he spare
The dreams seen through tobacco smoke.
We each must have our little care
To add by contrast to our joke,
......
