The Gipsy Girl

"COME, try your skill, kind gentlemen,

A penny for three tries!"

Some threw and lost, some threw and won

A ten-a-penny prize.

She was a tawny gipsy girl,

A girl of twenty years,

I liked her for the lumps of gold

That jingled from her ears;

I liked the flaring yellow scarf

Bound loose around her throat,

I liked her showy purple gown

And flashy velvet coat.

A man came up, too loose of tongue,

And said no good to her;

She did not blush as Saxons do,

Or turn upon the cur;

She fawned and whined "Sweet gentleman,

A penny for three tries!"

--But oh, the den of wild things in

The darkness of her eyes!

Ralph Hodgson

The Bells of Heaven

'TWOULD ring the bells of Heaven

The wildest peal for years,

If Parson lost his senses

And people came to theirs,

And he and they together

Knelt down with angry prayers

For tamed and shabby tigers,

And dancing dogs and bears,

And wretched, blind pit ponies,

And little hunted hares.

Ralph Hodgson

Time You Old Gipsy Man

TIME, you old gipsy man,

Will you not stay,

Put up your caravan

Just for one day?

All things I'll give you

Will you be my guest,

Bells for your jennet

Of silver the best,

Goldsmiths shall beat you

A great golden ring,

Peacocks shall bow to you,

Little boys sing.

Oh, and sweet girls will

Festoon you with may,

Time, you old gipsy,

Why hasten away?

Last week in Babylon,

Last night in Rome,

Morning, and in the crush

Under Paul's dome;

Under Paul's dial

You tighten your rein--

Only a moment

And off again;

Off to some city

Now blind in the womb,

Off to another

Ere that's in the tomb.

Time, you old gipsy man,

Will you not stay,

Put up your caravan

Just for one day?

Ralph Hodgson

Reason Has Moons

REASON has moons, but moons not hers.

Lie mirror'd on the sea,

Confounding her astronomers,

But, O! delighting me.

        .     .     .     .     .

BABYLON -- where I go dreaming

When I wear of today,

Weary of a world grown grey.

        .     .     .     .     .

GOD loves an idle rainbow,

No less than labouring seas.

Ralph Hodgson