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Home  »  A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895  »  Earl Norman and John Truman

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Charles Mackay 1814–89

Earl Norman and John Truman

THROUGH great Earl Norman’s acres wide,

A prosperous and a good land,

’T will take you fifty miles to ride

O’er grass, and corn, and woodland.

His age is sixty-nine, or near,

And I ’m scarce twenty-two, man,

And have but fifty pounds a year,—

Poor John Truman!

But would I change? I’ faith! not I,

Oh no! not I, says Truman!

Earl Norman dwells in halls of state,

The grandest in the county;

Has forty cousins at his gate,

To feed upon his bounty.

But then he ’s deaf—the doctors’ care,

While I in whispers woo, man,

And find my physic in the air,—

Stout John Truman!

D ’ye think I ’d change for thrice his gold?

Oh no! not I, says Truman!

Earl Norman boasts a gartered knee,

A proof of royal graces;

I wear, by Nelly wrought for me,

A silken pair of braces.

He sports a star upon his breast,

And I a violet blue, man,—

The gift of her who loves me best,

Proud John Truman!

I ’d be myself, and not the Earl,

Oh, that would I, says Truman.