Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5

Ballad of the Bookworm

page 101

Ballad of the Bookworm.

Deep in the past I peer and see
A child upon the nursery floor,
A child with book upon his knee
Who asks, like Oliver, for more!
The number of his years is IV,
And yet in letters hath he skill,
How deep he dives in fairy lore!—
The books I loved, I love them still.
One gift the fairies gave me: (Three
They commonly bestowed of yore)
The Love of Books, the Golden Key
That opens the Enchanted Door;
Behind it Bluebeard lurks, and o'er
And o'er doth Jack his giants kill,
And there is all Aladdin's store—
The books I loved, I love them still!
Take all, but leave my books to me!
Those heavy creels of old-world lore
We fill not now, nor wander free
Nor wear the heart that once we wore;
Not now each river seems to pour
His waters from the Muse's hill;
Though something's gone from stream and shore—
The books I loved, I loved them still.

Envoy.
Fate, thou art Queen by shore and sea,
We bow submissive to thy will,
Ah, grant, by some benign decree,
The books I loved, to love them still.

Authority unknown.