Charles Stuart Calverley Quotes

Charles Stuart Calverley shares witty, lyrical musings about love, youth, and imagination.

22 quotes

1. Now the 'rosy morn appearing' Floods with light the dazzled heaven; And the schoolboy groans on hearing That eternal clock strike seven:- Now the waggoner is driving Towards the fields his clattering wain; Now the bluebottle, reviving, Buzzes down his native pane.

2. White is the wold, and ghostly The dank and leafless trees; And 'M's and 'N's are mostly Pronounced like 'B's and 'D's: 'Neath bleak sheds, ice-encrusted, The sheep stands, mute and stolid: And ducks find out, disgusted, That all the ponds are solid.

3. O Beer! O Hodgson, Guinness, Allsop, Bass! Names that should be on every infant's tongue! Shall days and months and years and centuries pass, And still your merits be unrecked, unsung? Oh! I have gazed into my foaming glass, And wished that lyre could yet again be strung Which once rang prophet-like through Greece, and taught her Misguided sons that 'the best drink was water.'

4. I have a liking old For thee, though manifold Stories, I know, are told *Not to thy credit!

5. I sit alone at present, dreaming darkly of a Dun.

6. I can not sing the old songs now! It is not that I deem them low; 'T is that I can't remember how They go.

7. O my own, my beautiful, my blue-eyed! To be young once more and bite my thumb At the world and all its cares with you, I'd Give no inconsiderable sum.

8. The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese) And I met with a ballad, I can't say where, That wholly consisted of lines like these.

9. 'T was ever thus from childhood's hour! My fondest hopes would not decay: I never loved a tree or flower Which was the first to fade away.

10. Forever; 't is a single word! Our rude forefathers deemed it two: Can you imagine so absurd A view?

11. But ah! disasters have their use; And life might e'en be too sunshiny...

12. Read not Milton, for he is dry; nor Shakespeare, for he wrote of common life.

13. Life is with such all beer and skittles. They are not difficult to please About their victuals.

14. Go mad, and beat their wives; Plunge (after shocking lives) Razors and carving knives Into their gizzards.

15. Should ever anything be missed - milk, coals, umbrellas, brandy - the cat's pitched into with a boot or anything that's handy.

16. I've read in many a novel, that unless they've souls that grovel-- Folks prefer in fact a hovel to your dreary marble halls.

17. The heart which grief hath cankered, Hath one unfailing remedy - the Tankard.

18. Meaning, however, is no great matter.

19. Precious to me—it is the Dinner Bell. Oh blessed Bell! Thou bringest beef and beer...

20. But what is coffee, but a noxious berry, Born to keep used-up Londoners awake?

21. I cannot sing the old songs now! It is not that I deem them low, 'Tis that I can't remember how They go.

22. The auld wife sat at her ivied door, (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese) A thing she had frequently done before; And her spectacles lay on her apron'd knees...