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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Joseph Skipsey (1832–1903)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Dewdrop, Wind and Sun

Joseph Skipsey (1832–1903)

I
AH, be not vain! In yon flower-bell

As rare a pearl did I appear,

As ever grew in ocean shell,

To dangle at a Helen’s ear.

So was I till a cruel blast

Arose and swept me to the ground,

When, in a jewel of the past,

Earth but a drop of water found.

II
‘Queen Pearl ’s our equal—nay,

A fairer far am I,’ May Dewdrop said,

As Sol at break of day

Did kiss the sparkler on her grass-blade bed.

‘None may my charms resist!’

‘None,’ Sol still kissing answer’d, when alas!

The proud one turn’d to mist,

And with her pride did into Lethe pass.