by Coleridge · Cluster: Money and Gold · Poverty · Imprisonment
Abstract
Comic ‘extrumpery’ lines thanking Susan for a purse the poet has no cash to fill, joking about lost money and a kiss for the purse; light verse on poverty and money.
Connections
Motifs: Money and Gold Themes & Concepts: Poverty, Friendship, Joy Forms & Genres: Epigram
Testo integrale / Full text
EXTRUMPERY LINES
My dearest Dawtie!
That’s never naughty —
When the Mare was stolen, and not before,
The wise man got a stable-door:
And he and I are brother Ninnies,
One Beast he lost and I two guineas;
And as sure as it’s wet when it above rains,
The man’s brains and mine both alike had thick coverings,
For if he lost one mare, poor I lost two sovereigns!
A cash-pouch I have got, but no cash to put in it,
Tho’ there’s gold in the world and Sir Walter can win it:
For your sake I’ll keep it for better or worse,
So here is a dear loving kiss for your purse.
S. T. COLERIDGE.
1829. Now first published from an MS.