Juggling Jerry
Juggling Jerry
Original Text
Once a Week (Sept. 1859). Reprinted in George Meredith, Modern Love, and Poems of the English Roadside, with poems and ballads (London: Chapman and Hall, 1862). end M474 M63 1862 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
1Pitch here the tent, while the old horse grazes:
2 By the old hedge-side we'll halt a stage.
3It's nigh my last above the daisies:
4 My next leaf'll be man's blank page.
5Yes, my old girl! and it's no use crying:
6 Juggler, constable, king, must bow.
7One that outjuggles all's been spying
8 Long to have me, and he has me now.
9We've travelled times to this old common:
10 Often we've hung our pots in the gorse.
11We've had a stirring life, old woman!
12 You, and I, and the old grey horse.
13Races, and fairs, and royal occasions,
14 Found us coming to their call:
15Now they'll miss us at our stations:
16 There's a Juggler outjuggles all!
17Up goes the lark, as if all were jolly!
18 Over the duck-pond the willow shakes.
19Easy to think that grieving's folly,
20 When the hand's firm as driven stakes!
21Ay, when we're strong, and braced, and manful,
22 Life's a sweet fiddle: but we're a batch
23Born to become the Great Juggler's han'ful:
24 Balls he shies up, and is safe to catch.
25Here's where the lads of the village cricket:
26 I was a lad not wide from here:
28 Like an old world those days appear!
29Donkey, sheep, geese, and thatch'd ale-house--I know them!
30 They are old friends of my halts, and seem,
31Somehow, as if kind thanks I owe them:
32 Juggling don't hinder the heart's esteem.
33Juggling's no sin, for we must have victual:
34 Nature allows us to bait for the fool.
35Holding one's own makes us juggle no little;
36 But, to increase it, hard juggling's the rule.
37You that are sneering at my profession,
38 Haven't you juggled a vast amount?
39There's the Prime Minister, in one Session,
40 Juggles more games than my sins'll count.
41I've murdered insects with mock thunder:
42 Conscience, for that, in men don't quail.
43I've made bread from the bump of wonder:
44 That's my business, and there's my tale.
45Fashion and rank all praised the professor:
46 Ay! and I've had my smile from the Queen:
47Bravo, Jerry! she meant: God bless her!
48 Ain't this a sermon on that scene?
49I've studied men from my topsy-turvy
50 Close, and, I reckon, rather true.
51Some are fine fellows: some, right scurvy:
52 Most, a dash between the two.
53But it's a woman, old girl, that makes me
54 Think more kindly of the race:
55And it's a woman, old girl, that shakes me
56 When the Great Juggler I must face.
57We two were married, due and legal:
58 Honest we've lived since we've been one.
59Lord! I could then jump like an eagle:
60 You danced bright as a bit o' the sun.
61Birds in a May-bush we were! right merry!
62 All night we kiss'd, we juggled all day.
63Joy was the heart of Juggling Jerry!
64 Now from his old girl he's juggled away.
65It's past parsons to console us:
66 No, nor no doctor fetch for me:
67I can die without my bolus;
68 Two of a trade, lass, never agree!
69Parson and Doctor!--don't they love rarely
70 Fighting the devil in other men's fields!
71Stand up yourself and match him fairly:
72 Then see how the rascal yields!
73I, lass, have lived no gipsy, flaunting
74 Finery while his poor helpmate grubs:
75Coin I've stored, and you won't be wanting:
76 You shan't beg from the troughs and tubs.
77Nobly you've stuck to me, though in his kitchen
78 Many a Marquis would hail you Cook!
79Palaces you could have ruled and grown rich in,
80 But your old Jerry you never forsook.
82 Let's have comfort and be at peace.
83Once a stout draught made me light as a linnet.
84 Cheer up! the Lord must have his lease.
85May be--for none see in that black hollow--
86 It's just a place where we're held in pawn,
87And, when the Great Juggler makes as to swallow,
88 It's just the sword-trick--I ain't quite gone!
89Yonder came smells of the gorse, so nutty,
90 Gold-like and warm: it's the prime of May.
91Better than mortar, brick and putty
92 Is God's house on a blowing day.
93Lean me more up the mound; now I feel it:
94 All the old heath-smells! Ain't it strange?
95There's the world laughing, as if to conceal it,
96 But He's by us, juggling the change.
97I mind it well, by the sea-beach lying,
98 Once--it's long gone--when two gulls we beheld,
99Which, as the moon got up, were flying
100 Down a big wave that sparked and swell'd.
101Crack, went a gun: one fell: the second
102 Wheeled round him twice, and was off for new luck:
103There in the dark her white wing beckon'd:--
104 Drop me a kiss--I'm the bird dead-struck!
Notes
27] the bail: one of the cross-pieces on the wicket; Jerry evidently was a wicket-keeper when he played cricket. Back to Line
81] chipper: cup that makes one cheer up. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1859
RPO poem Editors
H. Kerpneck
RPO Edition
3RP 3.290.
Rhyme