When man, freed from the bond of clothes,
   And needing no more food,
Shall never pull his neighbour’s nose,
   But be extremely good.

When Love and Nobleness shall live
   Next door to Truth and Right,
While Reverence shall rent a room,
   Upon the second flight.

 And wishes shall be horses then,
   And beggars shall be kings;
And all the people shall admire
   This pleasant state of things.

But if it seems a mystery,
   And you’re inclined to doubt it,
Just ask your local poet.  He
   Will tell you all about it.

 THE DELIGHTS OF MATHEMATICS

It seems a hundred years or more
   Since I, with note-book, ink and pen,
In cap and gown, first trod the floor
   Which I have often trod since then;
Yet well do I remember when,
   With fifty other fond fanatics,
I sought delights beyond my ken,
   The deep delights of Mathematics.

I knew that two and two made four,
   I felt that five times two were ten,
But, as for all profounder lore,
   The robin redbreast or the wren,
 The sparrow, whether cock or hen,
   Knew quite as much about Quadratics,
Was less confused by x and n,
   The deep delights of Mathematics.

The Asses’ Bridge I passed not o’er,
   I floundered in the noisome fen
Which lies behind it and before;
   I wandered in the gloomy glen
Where Surds and Factors have their den. 
   But when I saw the pit of Statics,
I said Good-bye, Farewell, Amen! 
   The deep delights of Mathematics.

O Bejants! blessed, beardless men,
   Who strive with Euclid in your attics,
For worlds I would not taste again
   The deep delights of Mathematics.

 STANZAS FOR MUSIC

I loved a little maiden
   In the golden years gone by;
She lived in a mill, as they all do
   (There is doubtless a reason why). 
But she faded in the autumn
   When the leaves began to fade,
And the night before she faded,
   These words to me she said: 
’Do not forget me, Henry,
   Be noble and brave and true;
But I must not bide, for the world is wide,
   And the sky above is blue.’

So I said farewell to my darling,
   And sailed away and came back;
 And the good ship Jane was in port again,
   And I found that they all loved Jack. 
But Polly and I were sweethearts,
   As all the neighbours know,
Before I met with the mill-girl
   Twenty years ago. 
So I thought I would go and see her,
   But alas, she had faded too! 
She could not bide, for the world was wide,
   And the sky above was blue.

And now I can only remember
   The maid—­the maid of the mill,
And Polly, and one or two others
   In the churchyard over the hill. 
And I sadly ask the question,
   As I weep in the yew-tree’s shade
With my elbow on one of their tombstones,
   ‘Ah, why did they all of them fade?’
 And the answer I half expected
   Comes from the solemn yew,
’They could none of them bide, for the world was wide,
   And the sky above was blue.’