Daily Dose

From An Anthology of Light Verse, edited by Louis Kronenberger

ON AN UPRIGHT JUDGE

In church your grandsire cut his throat;
To do the job he too long tarried:
He should have had my hearty vote
To cut his throat before he married.

-- Jonathan Swift

Daily Dose

From An Anthology of Light Verse, edited by Louis Kronenberger

MEDIOCRITY IN LOVE REJECTED

Give me more love or more disdain;

         The torrid, or the frozen zone,

Bring equal ease unto my pain;

         The temperate affords me none;

Either extreme, of love, or hate,

Is sweeter than a calm estate.

Give me a storm; if it be love,

         Like Danae in that golden show'r

I swim in pleasure; if it prove

         Disdain, that torrent will devour

My vulture-hopes; and he's possess'd

Of heaven, that's but from hell releas'd.

Then crown my joys, or cure my pain;

Give me more love, or more disdain.

-- Thomas Carew

Daily Dose

From An Anthology of Light Verse: From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, edited byLouis Kronenberger

THE CRIMEAN HEROES

Hail, ye indomitable heroes, hail!
Despite of all your generals, ye prevail.

By Walter Savage Landor

Daily Dose

From An Anthology of Light Verse: From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, edited by Louis Kronenberger

IF

"If poets are born, light verse writers are not. No trances guide their pens: the freshness and gaiety we ask of them must be achieved through practice and drudgery."

From The Introduction