Poems from http://www.love-poems.name/

COUSIN KATE

by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

WAS a cottage maiden 
Hardened by sun and air, 
Contented with my cottage mates, 
Not mindful I was fair. 
Why did a great lord find me out, 
And praise my flaxen hair? 
Why did a great lord find me out 
To fill my heart with care? 

He lured me to his palace home-- 
Woe's me for joy thereof-- 
To lead a shameless shameful life, 
His plaything and his love. 
He wore me like a silken knot, 
He changed me like a glove; 
So now I moan, an unclean thing, 
Who might have been a dove. 

O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate, 
You grew more fair than I: 
He saw you at your father's gate, 
Chose you, and cast me by. 
He watched your steps along the lane, 
Your work among the rye; 
He lifted you from mean estate 
To sit with him on high. 

Because you were so good and pure 
He bound you with his ring: 
The neighbours call you good and pure, 
Call me an outcast thing. 
Even so I sit and howl in dust, 
You sit in gold and sing: 
Now which of us has tenderer heart? 
You had the stronger wing. 

O cousin Kate, my love was true, 
Your love was writ in sand: 
If he had fooled not me but you, 
If you stood where I stand, 
He'd not have won me with his love 
Nor bought me with his land; 
I would have spit into his face 
And not have taken his hand. 

Yet I've a gift you have not got, 
And seem not like to get: 
For all your clothes and wedding-ring 
I've little doubt you fret. 
My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride, 
Cling closer, closer yet: 
Your father would give lands for one 
To wear his coronet.

On the Ning Nang Nong  by Spike Milligan from Silly Verse for Kids, 1968  
On the Ning Nang Nong Where the Cows go Bong! And the Monkeys all say Boo! Theres a Nang Nong Ning Where the trees go Ping! And the tea pots Jibber Jabber Joo On the Nong Ning Nang All the Mice go Clang! And you just cant catch em when they do! So its Ning Nang Nong! Cows go Bong! Nong Nang Ning! Trees go Ping! Nong Ning Nang! The mice go Clang!  What a noisy place to belong,Is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!

The Pig  by Roald Dahl
 In England once there lived a big And wonderfully clever pig. To everybody it was plain That Piggy had a massive brain. He worked out sums inside his head, There was no book he hadn't read. He knew what made an airplane fly, He knew how engines worked and why. He knew all this, but in the end One question drove him round the bend: He simply couldn't puzzle out What LIFE was really all about. What was the reason for his birth? Why was he placed upon this earth? His giant brain went round and round. Alas, no answer could be found. Till suddenly one wondrous night. All in a flash he saw the light. He jumped up like a ballet dancer And yelled, "By gum, I've got the answer!" "They want my bacon slice by slice "To sell at a tremendous price! "They want my tender juicy chops "To put in all the butcher's shops! "They want my pork to make a roast "And that's the part'll cost the most! "They want my sausages in strings! "They even want my chitterlings! "The butcher's shop! The carving knife! "That is the reason for my life!" Such thoughts as these are not designed To give a pig great piece of mind. Next morning, in comes Farmer Bland, A pail of pigswill in his hand, And piggy with a mighty roar, Bashes the farmer to the floor… Now comes the rather grizzly bit So let's not make too much of it, Except that you must understand That Piggy did eat Farmer Bland, He ate him up from head to toe, Chewing the pieces nice and slow. It took an hour to reach the feet, Because there was so much to eat, And when he finished, Pig, of course, Felt absolutely no remorse. Slowly he scratched his brainy head And with a little smile he said, "I had a fairly powerful hunch "That he might have me for his lunch. "And so, because I feared the worst, "I thought I'd better eat him first."

At the Zoo by Alan Alexander Milne
 There are lions and roaring tigers, and enormous camels and things, There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons, and a great big bear with wings. There's a sort of a tiny potamus, and a tiny nosserus too - But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo!  There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers, and a Super-in-tendent's House, There are masses of goats, and a Polar, and different kinds of mouse, And I think there's a sort of a something which is called a wallaboo - But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo!   If you try to talk to the bison, he never quite understands; You can't shake hands with a mingo - he doesn't like shaking hands. And lions and roaring tigers hate saying, "How do you do?" - But I give buns to the elephant when I go down to the Zoo!

A Red, Red Rose  by Robert Burns
 O my Luve 's like a red, red rose  That 's newly sprung in June:  O my Luve 's like the melodie  That's sweetly play'd in tune!   As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,  So deep in luve am I:  And I will luve thee still, my dear,  Till a' the seas gang dry:   Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,  And the rocks melt wi' the sun;  I will luve thee still, my dear,  While the sands o' life shall run.   And fare thee weel, my only Luve,  And fare thee weel a while!  And I will come again, my Luve,  Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

Queen Matilda  by Marriott Edgar
 Henry the first, surnamed " Beauclare,"  Lost his only son William at sea, So when Henry died it were hard to decide  Who his heir and successor should be.  There were two runners-up for the title-  His daughter Matilda was one, And the other, a boy, known as Stephen of Blois,  His young sister Adela's son.  Matilda by right should have had it, Being daughter of him as were dead, But the folks wasn't keen upon having a queen,  So they went and crowned Stephen instead.  This 'ere were a knockout for Tilda, The notion she could not absorb To lose at one blow both the crown and the throne, To say naught of the sceptre and orb.  So she summoned her friends in t'West Country From Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and Frome, And also a lot of relations from Scotland,  Who'd come South and wouldn't go home.  The East Counties rallied round Stephen,  Where his cause had support of the masses, And his promise of loot brought a lot of recruits From the more intellectual classes.  The Country were split in two parties In a manner you'd hardly believe,  The West with a will shouted: "Up with Matilda !"  The East hollered: Come along, Steve!  The two armies met up in Yorkshire,  Both leaders the same tactics tried. To each soldier they gave a big standard to wave,  In hopes they'd impress t 'other side.  It were known as the battle o't Standard,  Though no battling anyone saw, For with flags in their right hands, the lads couldn't fight,  And the referee called it a draw.  The next time they met were at Lincoln,  Where Stephen were properly beat, At the end of the scrap he were led off a captive,  With iron balls chained to his feet.  They took him in triumph to Tilda,  Who, assuming an arrogant mien, Snatched the Crown off his head and indignantly said "Take your 'at off in front of your Queen!"  So Stephen were put in a dungeon,  While Tilda ascended the throne And reigned undisturbed for best part of a year, Till she looked on the job as her own.  But Stephen weren't beat by a long chalk  His plans for escape he soon made, For he found Tilda's troops were all getting fed up, Having heard that they wouldn't be paid.   So when Tilda got snowed up at Oxford,  Where she'd taken to staying of late, She woke one fine morn, to the sound of a horn, And found Stephen outside her front gate.  Her troops gone, her castle surrounded,  She saw she hadn't a chance, So, the ground being white, she escaped in her nightie And caught the next packet for France.  She didn't do badly at finish, When everything's weighed up and reckoned For when Stephen was gone the next heir to the throne Were Matilda's son, Henry the second.