by Keats · Cluster: Satire of Society · Epigram · Satire
Abstract
Comic ‘nonsense verses’ satirizing love-sick, languid lovers at a tea-party who neglect everything around them; gentle social satire of romantic affectation.
Connections
Motifs: Food and Feasting Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Romantic Love Forms & Genres: Satire, Narrative Poem
Testo integrale / Full text
‘A few Nonsense Verses’ sent in a Letter to George Keats
Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes,
Nibble their toast and cool their tea with sighs ;
Or else forget the purpose of the night,
Forget their tea, forget their appetite.
See, with cross’d arms they sit - Ah! happy crew,
The fire is going out and no one rings
For coals, and therefore no coals Betty brings.
A fly is in the milk-pot. Must he die
Circled by a humane society?
No, no; there, Mr Werter takes his spoon,
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Inserts it, dips the handle, and lo! soon
The little straggler, sav’d from perils dark,
Across the teaboard draws a long wet mark.
Romeo! Arise, take snuffers by the handle,
There is a large cauliflower in each candle.
A winding sheet - ah, me! I must away
To No. 7, just beyond the circus gay.’
Alas, my friend, your coat sits very well ;
Where may your tailor live? I may not tell.
O O pardon me. I’m absent now and then.
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Where might my tailor live? I say again
I I cannot tell, let me no more be teased ;
He lives in Wapping, might live where he pleased.