Mother Goose for Grown Folks. Whitney Adeline Dutton Train
the throng pours upward from the earth
To Heaven's eternal gates.
In shreds of torn affection,
In passion-rended rags;
While scarcely at the portal
The great procession flags;
For the pillared doors of glory
On their hinges hang awide;
Where each asking soul may enter,
And at last be satisfied!
But a cold, calm shade arriveth,
In self-complacent trim,—
And Peter riseth up to see
Especially to him.
"Good morrow, saint! I'm going in
To take a stroll, you know;
Not that I want for anything,—
But just to see the show!"
"Hold!" thunders out the warden,
"Be pleased to pause a bit!
For seats celestial, let me say,
You 're not apparelled fit:
Yonder 's the brazen door that leads
Spectators to the pit!
Whatever may be thought on earth,
We've other rules in heaven;
And only poverty confessed
Finds free admittance given!"
BLACKBIRDS
"Sing a song o' sixpence, a pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie:
When the pie was opened, they all began to sing,
And was n't this a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting-house, counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlor, eating bread and honey;
The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes,
And along came a blackbird, and nipt off her nose!"
It doesn't take a conjurer to see
The sort of curious pasty this might be;
A flock of flying rumors, caught alive,
And housed, like swarming bees within a
hive,—
Instead of what were far more wisely
done,
Having their worthless necks wrung, every
one;—
And so a dish of dainty gossip making,
Smooth covered with a show of secrecy,
That one but takes the pleasant pains of
breaking,
And out the wide-mouthed knaves pop,
eagerly.
Blackbirds, indeed! Each chattering on-
dit
Comes forth, full feathered, black as black
can be;
With quivering throats, all tremulous to
sing,
And please, forsooth, some little social
king;
Whose reign may last as long as he is able
To call his court around a dinner-table.
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