Back to his shattered chain,
To-day may then be yesterday—
I may be yours again!
William Makepeace Thackeray, combining all the highest mental and moral qualities in his work, adds thereto a delicate and subtle humor, never broad, but always forcible and original.
This permeates all his novels, which, of course, may not be quoted here, even in excerpts.
But Thackeray was equally happy in verse, and his contributions to London Punch are among the treasures of that journal’s history.
LITTLE BILLEE
There were three sailors of Bristol City
Who took a boat and went to sea,
But first with beef and captain’s biscuits,