John Townsend Trowbridge
John Townsend Trowbridge Poems
WE are two travellers, Roger and I.
Roger ’s my dog.—Come here, you scamp!
Jump for the gentlemen,—mind your eye!
...
FROM the house of desolation,
From the doors of lamentation,
I went forth into the midnight and the vistas of the moon;
...
JUST back from a beach of sand and shells,
And shingle the tides leave oozy and dank,
...
The listening Dryads hushed the woods;
The boughs were thick, and thin and few
The golden ribbons fluttering through;
...
HER triumphs are over, the crown
Has passed from her brow;
And she smiles, 'To whom now does the town
My poor laurels allow?'
...
ON Haverhill's pleasant hills there played,
Some sixty years ago,
In turned-up trousers, tattered hat,
...
OPEN lies the book before me: in a realm obscure as dreams
I can trace the pale blue mazes of innumerable streams, ...
...
TO Nature, in her shop one day, at work compounding simples,
Studying fresh tints for Beauty's cheeks, or new effects in dimples,
...
OUT from the Northern forest, dim and vast;
Out from the mystery
Of yet more shadowy times, a pathless past,
...
Around this lovely valley rise
The purple hills of Paradise.
O, softly on yon banks of haze,
...
The speckled sky is dim with snow,
The light flakes falter and fall slow;
Athwart the hill-top, rapt and pale,
Silently drops a silvery veil;
...
SELL old Robin, do you say? Well, I reckon not today!
I have let you have your way with the land,
...
WHEN we were farm boys, years ago,
I dare not tell how many,
When, strange to say, the fairest day
Was often dark and rainy;
...
NATIVITY.
THISTLE and serpent we exterminate,
Yet blame them not; and righteously abhor
The crimes of men with all their kind at war,
...
CIRCUMSTANCE.
STALKING before the lords of life, one came,
A Titan shape! But often he will crawl,
...
PROVIDENCE.
WEARY with pondering many a weighty theme,
I slept; and in the realm of vision saw
A mighty Angel reverently updraw
...
MY boy, do you know the boy I love?
I fancy I see him now;
His forehead bare in the sweet spring air,
...
PLUMED ranks of tall wild-cherry
And birch surround
The half-hid, solitary
Old burying-ground.
...
John Townsend Trowbridge Biography
John Townsend Trowbridge (September 18, 1827 – February 12, 1916) was an American author born in Ogden, New York, USA, to Windsor Stone Trowbridge and Rebecca Willey. His papers are located at the Houghton Library at Harvard University. His novels include Neighbor Jackwood (1857), an antislavery novel; The Old Battle-Ground (1859); Cudjo's Cave (1864); The Three Scouts (1865); Lucy Arlyn (1866); Neighbors' Wives (1867); Coupon Bonds, and Other Stories (1873); and Farnell's Folly.Another is Evening At The Farm. Trowbridge wrote numerous works under the pseudonym of Paul Creyton, including The Midshipman's Revenge (1849), Kate the Accomplice, or, The Preacher and the Burglar (1849), The Deserted Family, or, Wanderings of an Outcast (1853), Father Brighthopes, or, An Old Clergyman's Vacation (1853), Burr Cliff: its Sunshine and its Clouds (1853); Martin Merrivale: His X Mark (1854), Iron Thorpe (1855), Neighbor Jackwood (1857). Among his very many juvenile tales are The Drummer Boy, The Prize Cup, The Lottery Ticket, The Tide-Mill Stories, The Toby Trafford Series, The Little Master, and the Jack Hazard series. His published volumes of verse include: The Vagabonds, and Other Poems; The Emigrant's Story, and Other Poems; A Home Idyl, and Other Poems; The Lost Earl; and The Book of Gold, and Other Poems. The Vagabonds, At Sea, Midsummer, and Guy Vernon: A Novelette in Verse are among his best-known poems. In Darius Green and his Flying Machine, Trowbridge penned the following prophetic verse: "Darius was clearly of the opinion / That the air is also man's dominion / And that with paddle or fin or pinion, / We soon or late shall navigate / The azure as now we sail the sea." Since his death he has been well known as a friend of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.)
The Best Poem Of John Townsend Trowbridge
The Vagabonds
WE are two travellers, Roger and I.
Roger ’s my dog.—Come here, you scamp!
Jump for the gentlemen,—mind your eye!
Over the table,—look out for the lamp!
The rogue is growing a little old;
Five years we ’ve tramped through wind and weather,
And slept out-doors when nights were cold,
And ate and drank—and starved—together.
We ’ve learned what comfort is, I tell you!
A bed on the floor, a bit of rosin,
A fire to thaw our thumbs (poor fellow!
The paw he holds up there ’s been frozen),
Plenty of catgut for my fiddle
(This out-door business is bad for strings),
Then a few nice buckwheats hot from the griddle,
And Roger and I set up for kings!
No, thank ye, Sir,—I never drink;
Roger and I are exceedingly moral,—
Are n’t we, Roger?—See him wink!—
Well, something hot, then,—we won’t quarrel.
He ’s thirsty, too,—see him nod his head?
What a pity, Sir, that dogs can’t talk!
He understands every word that ’s said,—
And he knows good milk from water-and-chalk.
The truth is, Sir, now I reflect,
I ’ve been so sadly given to grog,
I wonder I ’ve not lost the respect
(Here ’s to you, Sir!) even of my dog.
But he sticks by, through thick and thin;
And this old coat, with its empty pockets,
And rags that smell of tobacco and gin,
He ’ll follow while he has eyes in his sockets.
There is n’t another creature living
Would do it, and prove, through every disaster,
So fond, so faithful, and so forgiving,
To such a miserable, thankless master!
No, Sir!—see him wag his tail and grin!
By George! it makes my old eyes water!
That is, there ’s something in this gin
That chokes a fellow. But no matter!
We ’ll have some music, if you ’re willing,
And Roger (hem! what a plague a cough is, Sir!)
Shall march a little—Start, you villain!
Paws up! Eyes front! Salute your officer!
’Bout face! Attention! Take your rifle!
(Some dogs have arms, you see!) Now hold your
Cap while the gentlemen give a trifle,
To aid a poor old patriot soldier!
March! Halt! Now show how the rebel shakes
When he stands up to hear his sentence.
Now tell us how many drams it takes
To honor a jolly new acquaintance.
Five yelps,—that ’s five; he ’s mighty knowing!
The night’s before us, fill the glasses!—
Quick, Sir! I ’m ill,—my brain is going!—
Some brandy,—thank you,—there!—it passes!
Why not reform? That ’s easily said;
But I ’ve gone through such wretched treatment,
Sometimes forgetting the taste of bread.
And scarce remembering what meat meant,
That my poor stomach’s past reform;
And there are times when, mad with thinking,
I ’d sell out heaven for something warm
To prop a horrible inward sinking.
Is there a way to forget to think?
At your age, Sir, home, fortune, friends,
A dear girl’s love,—but I took to drink,—
The same old story; you know how it ends.
If you could have seen these classic features,—
You need n’t laugh, Sir; they were not then
Such a burning libel on God’s creatures:
I was one of your handsome men!
If you had seen her, so fair and young,
Whose head was happy on this breast!
If you could have heard the songs I sung
When the wine went round, you wouldn’t have guessed
That ever I, Sir, should be straying
From door to door, with fiddle and dog,
Ragged and penniless, and playing
To you to-night for a glass of grog!
She ’s married since,—a parson’s wife:
’T was better for her that we should part,—
Better the soberest, prosiest life
Than a blasted home and a broken heart.
I have seen her? Once: I was weak and spent
On the dusty road: a carriage stopped:
But little she dreamed, as on she went,
Who kissed the coin that her fingers dropped!
You ’ve set me talking, Sir; I ’m sorry;
It makes me wild to think of the change!
What do you care for a beggar’s story?
Is it amusing? you find it strange?
I had a mother so proud of me!
’T was well she died before.—Do you know
If the happy spirits in heaven can see
The ruin and wretchedness here below?
Another glass, and strong, to deaden
This pain; then Roger and I will start.
I wonder, has he such a lumpish, leaden,
Aching thing in place of a heart?
He is sad sometimes, and would weep, if he could,
No doubt remembering things that were,—
A virtuous kennel, with plenty of food,
And himself a sober, respectable cur.
I ’m better now; that glass was warming.—
You rascal! limber your lazy feet!
We must be fiddling and performing
For supper and bed, or starve in the street.—
Not a very gay life to lead, you think?
But soon we shall go where lodgings are free,
And the sleepers need neither victuals nor drink:—
The sooner, the better for Roger and me!
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