Every mouse had a silver bell
Round its neck, as I’ve heard tell;
Tinkle tink!—
But who would think
Of a harnessed mouse, with a silver bell?
“What can six white mice intend?”
Thought Queen Mab, with her hair on end—
“And silver bells,
And what-not-else—
What can six white mice intend?
“When was such a procession seen?
It frightens me, as I’m a Queen!”
So she stopped her tricks,
And her coach-and-six
Drove away with the Fairy Queen.
THE NEW WORLD
I SAW a new world in my dream,
Where all the folks alike did seem;
There was no Child, there was no Mother,
There was no Change, there was no Other,
For everything was Same, the Same;
There was no praise, there was no blame;
There was neither Need nor Help for it;
There was nothing fitting, or unfit.
Nobody laughed, nobody wept;
None grew weary, and so none slept;
There was nobody born, and nobody wed;
This world was a world of the living-dead.