Charles Stuart Calverley



Charles Stuart Calverley (December 22, 1831 – February 17, 1884) was an English poet. He was the literary father of what has been called "the university school of humour".

Quotes

 * 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.
 * Ode - "On a Distant Prospect" of Making a Fortune, from Verses and Translations (1862).


 * 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.
 * Dirge, from Verses and Translations (1862).


 * 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."
 * Beer, from Verses and Translations (1862).


 * I have a liking old For thee, though manifold Stories, I know, are told Not to thy credit; How one (or two at most) Drops make a cat a ghost— Useless, except to roast— Doctors have said it: How they who use fusees All grow by slow degrees Brainless as chimpanzees, Meagre as lizards; Go mad, and beat their wives; Plunge (after shocking lives) Razors and carving knives Into their gizzards.
 * Ode to Tobacco.


 * I sit alone at present, dreaming darkly of a Dun.
 * In the Gloaming; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).


 * 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.
 * Changed; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).


 * 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.
 * First Love; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).


 * 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.
 * Ballad; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).


 * ’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.
 * Disaster; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare:
 * Oh, ever thus, from childhood’s hour, I ’ve seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower But ’t was the first to fade away. - Thomas Moore, The Fire Worshippers, p. 26.


 * Forever; ’t is a single word! Our rude forefathers deemed it two: Can you imagine so absurd A view?
 * Forever; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).