Joseph Skipsey poems

Joseph Skipsey(March 17, 1832 - September 3,1903 / Percy, Northumberland)

The Butterfly

- by Joseph Skipsey 21

The butterfly from flower to flower
The urchin chas'd; and, when at last
He caught it in my lady's bower,
He cried, “Ha, ha!” and held it fast.

Awhile he laugh'd, but soon he wept,
When looking at the prize he'd caught
He found he had to ruin swept
The very glory he had sought

The Dewdrop

- by Joseph Skipsey 15

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 the jewel of the past,
Earth but a drop of water found.