Men must keep touch with things they used to use
To earn their living, even when they are free;
And so come back upon the least excuse—
Same as the sailor settled near the sea.
He knows he's never going on no cruise
He knows he's done and finished with the sea;
And yet he likes to feel she's there to use—
If he should ask her—as she used to be.
Even though she cost him all he had to lose,
Even though she made him sick to hear or see,
Still, what she left of him will mostly choose
Her skirts to sit by. How comes such to be?
Parsons in pulpits, tax-payers in pews.
Kings on your thrones, you know as well as me,
We've only one virginity to lose.
And where we lost it there our hearts will be!
The Legends of Evil
1890
I
This is the sorrowful story
Told as the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
Holding their neighbours' tails:—
"Our fathers lived in the forest,
"Foolish people were they,
"They went down to the cornland
"To teach the farmers to play.
