“One kiss, dear maid,” I said, and sighed, Coleridge.
Out of those lips unshorn, Longfellow.
She shook her ringlets round her head Stoddard.
And laughed in merry scorn. Tennyson.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, Tennyson.
You heard them, oh, my heart; Alice Cary.
’Tis twelve at night by the castle clock, Coleridge.
Beloved, we must part. Alice Cary.
“Come back, come back!” she cried in grief, Campbell.
My eyes are dim with tears Bayard Taylor.
How shall I live through all the days? Osgood.
All through a hundred years? T. S. Parry.
’Twas in the prime of summer time, Hood.
She blessed me with her hand; Hoyt.
We strayed together, deeply blest Edwards.
Into the dreaming land. Cornwall.
The laughing bridal roses blow, Patmore.
To dress her dark-brown hair; Bayard Taylor.
My heart is breaking with my woe, Tennyson.
Most beautiful! Most rare! Read.
I clasped it on her sweet, cold hand, Browning.
The precious golden link! Smith.
I calmed her fears, and she was calm, Coleridge.
Drink, pretty creature, drink!” Wordsworth.
And so I won my Genevieve, Coleridge.
And walked in Paradise; Hervey.
The fairest thing that ever grew Wordsworth.
Atween me and the skies! Osgood.
The composite poem thus formed may not be praised for beauty of thought, for absolute sequence of expression; but it is certainly a most ingenious composition and a monument of literary research.
The remarkable sibilance of the English language is cleverly exaggerated in the following lines, which are commended to the attention of those who lisp—
Susanna Snooks sings sad, sweet songs, she sees soft summer skies;
Strange sunset shades sift silently—she somewhat sadly sighs.
Soliloquizingly she strays, sweet songsters shyly sing.
She sees slim spruces’ slanting shades surround some sparkling spring.