Old Poetry Poetry • Poets • Essays • Forums •

John Mouldy


I spied John Mouldy in his celler,
Deep down twenty steps of stone;
In the dusk he sat a-smiling
Smiling there all alone.

He read no book, he snuffed no candle;
The rats ran in, the rats ran out,
And far and near, the drip of water
Went whisp'ring about.

The dusk was still, with dew a-falling,
I saw the Dog-star bleak and grim,
I saw a slim brown rat of Norway
Creep over him.

I spied John Mouldy in his celler,
Deep down twenty steps of stone;
In the dusk he sat a-smiling
Smiling there all alone.

Notes

This poem taken from the book "People" in the Poems and Pictures series. Ed Dennis saunders / Vincent Oliver Pub Evans Brothers, London [page 16]

Leave a guest comment (subject to review)

    : Comment:

    Name: (required)
    Email: (required, hidden from spam)

Comments


  • I-Like-Rhymes Moderators member
    October 6
    Edit | Reply
    This takes me back to my childhood and a trip with my father to look at a house he was considering buying. It seems de la Mere had also visited it!!
    It was all there, damp patches making maps on the wall stone steps but fortunately no rats just a mouse.
    I lived in that house on and off for the next 25 years.