A Vision of Truth
by John Collings Squire (1884-1958)

As it fell upon a day
I made another garden, yea,
I got me flowers to strew the way
      Like to the summer’s rain;
And the chaffinth sings on the orchard bough
“Poor moralist, and what art thou?
But blessings on thy frosty pow
      And she shall rise again!”

Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore,
A highly respectable Chancellor,
A military casque he wore
      Half-hidden from the eye;
The robin redbreast and the wren,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen,
Heckety-peckety my black hen,
      He took her with a sigh.

The fight is o’er, the battle won,
And Furious Frank and fiery Hun,
Stole a pig and away he run
      And drew my snickersnee,
A gulf divides the west and worst
“Ho! Bring us wine to quench our thirst!”
We were the fist who ever burst
      Under the greenwood tree.

Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep
(She is a shepherdess of sheep),
Bid me to weep and I will weep,
      Thy tooth is not so keen,
Then up and spake Sir Patrick Spens
Who bought a fiddle for eighteenpenc
And reverently departed thence,
      His wife could eat no lean.

                  Epilogue
‘Twas roses, roses all the way
      Nor any drop to drink.

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