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Joseph Skipsey

Joseph Skipsey

Hey Robin

(The first two lines are old.)
 
 
HEY Robin, jolly Robin,
   Tell me how thy lady doth?
Is she laughing, is she sobbing
   Is she gay, or grave, or both?
 
Is she like the finch, so merry,
   Lilting in her father’s hall?
Or the crow with cry a very
   Plague to each, a plague to all.
 
Is she like the violet breathing
   Blessings on her native place?
Or the cruel nettle scathing
   All who dare approach her grace?
 
Is she like the dew-drop sparkling
   When the morn peeps o’er the land?
Or the cloud in mid-air darkling,
   When a fearful storm’s at hand?
 
Tut, to count the freaks of woman,
   Count the pebbles of the seas;
Rob, thy lady’s not uncommon,
   Be or do she what she please!

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Other works by Joseph Skipsey...
Dame Malice

DAME Malice reigns the Queen of… With wink and whisper, nod and cha… She trots along, and never fags, While she has scandal-seeds to sca… Then when her seeds are poison-wee…
The Angel and the Seer

“I HAVE, oped thy inner vision,” (Spake the Spirit to the Seer,) “Now I’ll show to thee the missio… Which whate’er betides—whate’er— Thou by heaven’s high permission s…
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My Merry Bird

I HAD a merry bird Who sung a merry song, And take it on my word, The day it was not long In presence of my bird with its me…
A Lullaby

(Suggested by an old verse.) THRO’ the dark and dreary night, Golden slumbers kiss thine eyes; Sleep, and in the early light With a golden smile arise!
Thistle and Nettle

’TWAS on a night, with sleet and… From out the north a tempest blew, When Thistle to her cot did go The little Nettle’s self to woo. His errand known, she, with a frow…
The Resolve

IN trumpet-toned accents I heard A voice in a vision to cry;— ‘By threat of no tyrant deterred, We rear up our banner on high. ‘No longer, tho’ feeble and poor,
The Ruin

THE bitter wind blows o’er the de… —The bloom from the blossom foreve… And I must trudge on thro’ the sl… And sweet to my heart were the lot… Upon my shrunk bosom sleep seizeth…
Hag Night

LA, what a Night! The hag has… In hue to prove a chimla sweeper; And did the North not blow his ho… No star would dare to show its pee… How black her look!—(Just like th…
The Outcast Flower

YOU turn up your nose at me? I suppose, I’m noisome and base? Before on my head you cruelly trea… Give ear to my case. A lily-bell rare, my charms were l…
The Tower

MY wee, wee fawn, you see me yawn… Well, I’m not much disposed to fl… And were I so, you rogue! you kno… You’re proof against the fiercest… You have an ear? of stone, my dear…
The Proud One’s Doom

‘QUEEN PEARL’S own equal—nay, A fairer far am I,’ May Dewdrop… As Sol at break of day Did kiss the sparkler on her grass… ‘None may my charms resist!’
The Critics

I LIKE the darling critics—like? O, how upon their work I linger, When they their weapons use to str… Not me, but some less happy singer… The treasure of their venom-bags
Man What Is He?

WHAT is Man? The question flo… From the lips with ease, and yet He who best can answer knoweth, Answer true were hard to get. Not the Sphinx in Egypt olden
 1
IO PÆAN

TRIUMPHANT o’er trouble, triu… Triumphant o’er all and thro’ all… With the cry "Iö Pæan!" and Echo… From her cave "Iö Pæan!" enraptur… The storm may set in and the summe…
The Dewdrop

AH, be not vain. In yon flower-be… As rare a pearl, did I appear, As ever grew in ocean shell, To dangle at a Helen’s ear. So was I till a cruel blast



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