So she shakes 'em, an' she twists 'em, an' she tu'ns 'em 'roun' erbout, 'Twell I don' see how de chillun evah keeps f'om hollahin' out. Den she lif's 'em up head down'ards, so's dey won't git livah-grown, But dey snoozes des' ez peaceful ez a liza'd on a stone. W'en hit's mos' nigh time fu' wakin' on de dawn o' jedgement day, Seems lak I kin hyeah ol' Gab'iel lay his trumpet down an' say, "Who dat walkin' 'roun' so easy, down on earf ermong de dead?" 'T will be Lizy up a-tu'nin' of de chillun in de bed. 1 A COQUETTE CONQUERED 1 Yes, my ha't's ez ha'd ez stone- Phiny loves you true an' deah? Got a present! Whut yo' got? From Lyrics of Lowly Life. Copyright, 1896, by Dodd, Mead & Company. Whut's dat un'neaf yo' coat? 'Tain't no possum? Bless de Lamb! Yes, it is, you rascal, Sam! Gin it to me; whut you say? Ain't you sma't now! Oh, go 'way! But you ax too big a price. Tell me, is you talkin' true, Dat's de gal's whut ma'ies you? Come back, Sam; now whah's you gwine? Guy Wetmore Carryl Guy Wetmore Carryl, son of Charles Edward Carryl (see page 43), was born in New York City, March 4, 1873. He graduated from Columbia University in 1895, was editor of Munsey's Magazine, 1895-6, and, during the time he lived abroad (from 1897 to 1902), was the foreign representative of various American publications. Inheriting a remarkable technical gift from his father, young Carryl soon surpassed him as well as all other rivals in the field of brilliantly rhymed, brilliantly turned burlesques. Although he wrote several serious poems (the best of which have been collected in the posthumously published The Garden of Years, 1904), Carryl's most characteristic work is to be found in his perversions of the parables of Æsop, Fables for the Frivolous (1898), the topsy-turvy interpretations of old nursery rhymes, Mother Goose for Grownups (1900) and his fantastic variations on the fairy tales in Grimm Tales Made Gay (1903) —all of them with a surprising (and punning) Moral attached. This extraordinary versifier died, before reaching the height of his power, at the age of thirty-one, in the summer of 1904. THE SYCOPHANTIC FOX AND THE GULLIBLE RAVEN A raven sat upon a tree, And not a word he spoke, for We'll make it any kind you please- Beneath the tree's umbrageous limb Two things there are, no doubt you know, A rooster that is bound to crow, He tells the most unblushing lies. "Sweet fowl," he said, "I understand I hear you sing to beat the band Pray render with your liquid tongue This subtle speech was aimed to please He thought no bird in all the trees Could sing as well as he did. In flattery completely doused, He gave the "Jewel Song" from "Faust." But gravitation's law, of course, As Isaac Newton showed it, And elsewhere soon bestowed it. I blush to add that when the bird He said one brief, emphatic word, The fox was greatly startled, but The Moral is: A fox is bound To be a shameless sinner. And also: When the cheese comes round You know it's after dinner. But (what is only known to few) The fox is after dinner, too. HOW JACK FOUND THAT BEANS MAY GO BACK ON A CHAP Without the slightest basis For hypochondriasis, A widow had forebodings which a cloud around her flung, And with expression cynical For half the day a clinical Thermometer she held beneath her tongue. Whene'er she read the papers She suffered from the vapors, At every tale of malady or accident she'd groan; In every new and smart disease, From housemaid's knee to heart disease, She recognized the symptoms as her own! She had a yearning chronic To try each novel tonic, Elixir, panacea, lotion, opiate, and balm; And from a homeopathist Would change to an hydropathist, And back again, with stupefying calm! She was nervous, cataleptic, And anemic, and dyspeptic: Though not convinced of apoplexy, yet she had her fears. She dwelt with force fanatical, Upon a twinge rheumatical, And said she had a buzzing in her ears! Now all of this bemoaning And this grumbling and this groaning The mind of Jack, her son and heir, unconscionably bored. His heart completely hardening, He gave his time to gardening, For raising beans was something he adored. Each hour in accents morbid This limp maternal bore bid Her callous son affectionate and lachrymose good-bys. She never granted Jack a day Without some long "Alackaday!" Accompanied by rolling of the eyes. |