James Russell Lowell - The Biglow papers (1848)

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Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul,
An' risen up earth's greatest nation.

James Russell Lowell
To say why gals acts so or so,
Or don't, 'ould be persumin';
Mebby to mean yes an' say no
Comes nateral to women.

James Russell Lowell
General C. is a dreffle smart man;
He's been on all sides that give places or pelf;
But consistency still was a part of his plan,—
He's been true to one party, an' that is himself.

James Russell Lowell
Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown
An' peeked in thru' the winder,
An there sot Huldy all alone,
'ith no one nigh to hender.

James Russell Lowell
Of my merit
On thet pint you yourself may jedge;
All is, I never drink no sperit,
Nor I haint never signed no pledge.

James Russell Lowell
You've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.

James Russell Lowell
All kin' o' smily round the lips,
An' teary round the lashes.

James Russell Lowell
Like streams that keep a summer mind
Snow-hid in Jenooary.

James Russell Lowell
It ain't by princerples nor men
My preudunt course is steadied—
I scent wich pays the best, an' then
Go into it baldheaded.

James Russell Lowell
Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth
On war's red techstone rang true metal;
Who ventered life an' love an' youth
For the gret prize o' death in battle?

James Russell Lowell
Ez fer war, I call it murder —
There you hev it plain an' flat;
I don't want to go no Harder Than my Testyment fer that.

James Russell Lowell
We've a war, an' a debt, an' a flag; an' ef this
Ain't to be inderpendunt, why, wut on airth is?

James Russell Lowell
This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.

James Russell Lowell
I du believe with all my soul
In the gret Press's freedom,
To pint the people to the goal
An' in the traces lead 'em.

James Russell Lowell
'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look
On sech a blessed cretur.

James Russell Lowell
Laborin' man an' laborin' woman
Hev one glory an' one shame;
Ev'y thin' thet's done inhuman
Injers all on 'em the same.

James Russell Lowell
Soft-heartedness, in times like these,
Shows sof'ness in the upper story.

James Russell Lowell
The right to be a cussed fool Is safe from all devices human, It's common (ez a gin'I rule) To every critter born of woman.

James Russell Lowell
Not a deed would he do,
Not a word would he utter,
Till he's weighed its relation
To plain bread and butter.

James Russell Lowell
Ez to my princerples, I glory
In hevin' nothin' o' the sort.

James Russell Lowell
A merciful Providence fashioned us holler
O' purpose that we might our principles swaller.

James Russell Lowell
The very room, coz she was in,
Seemed warm from floor to ceilin'

James Russell Lowell
Under the yaller pines I house,
When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented,
An' hear among their furry boughs
The baskin' west-wind purr contented.

James Russell Lowell
He stood a spell on one foot fust
Then stood a spell on t' other,
An' on which one he felt the wust
He could n't ha' told ye nuther.

James Russell Lowell
She thought no v'ice hed sech a swing
Ez hisn in the choir;
My! when he made Ole Hunderd ring
She knowed the Lord was nigher.

James Russell Lowell
No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu,
An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu.

James Russell Lowell
I don't believe in princerple,
But oh I du in interest.

James Russell Lowell
God makes sech nights, all white an' still,
Fur'z you can look or listen,
Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill,
All silence an' all glisten.

James Russell Lowell
Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut tu du
Is jes' to show you're up to fightin', tu.

James Russell Lowell
Our papers don't purtend to print on'y wut Guv'ment choose,
An' thet insures us all to git the very best o' noose.

James Russell Lowell