Poetry Archives

I knew an old man at a Fair
Who made it his twice-yearly task
To clamber on a cider cask
And cry to all the yokels there:—

“Lovers to-day and for all time
 Preserve the meaning of my rhyme:
 Love is not kindly nor yet grim
 But does to you as you to him.

“Whistle, and Love will come to you,
 Hiss, and he fades without a word,
 Do wrong, and he great wrong will do,
 Speak, he retells what he has heard.

“Then all you lovers have good heed
 Vex not young Love in word or deed:
 Love never leaves an unpaid debt,
 He will not pardon nor forget.”

The old man’s voice was sweet yet loud
And this shows what a man was he,
He’d scatter apples to the crowd
And give great draughts of cider, free.