Last night I rode with Touchstone on a bus
From Ludgate Hill to World’s End. It was he!
Despite the broadcloth and the bowler hat,
I knew him, Touchstone, the wild flower of folly,
The whetstone of his age, the scourge of kings,
The madcap morning star of elfin-land,
Who used to wrap his legs around his neck
For warmth on winter nights. He had slipped back,
To see what men were doing in a world
That should be wiser. He had watched a play,
Read several books, heard men discourse of art
And life; and he sat bubbling like a spring
In Arden. Never did blackbird, drenched with may,
Chuckle as Touchstone chuckled on that ride.
_Lord, what a world! Lord, what a mad, mad world!_
Then, to the jolt and jingle of the engine,
He burst into this bunch of madcap rhymes:–
(Alfred Noyes)
More Poetry from Alfred Noyes:
Alfred Noyes Poems based on Topics: Night, World, Man, Kings & Queens, Life, Age, Winter, Spring, Art, Madness, Books- A Loom of Years (Alfred Noyes Poems)
- Daddy Fell into the Pond. (Alfred Noyes Poems)
- Enceladus (Alfred Noyes Poems)
- The Barrel-Organ (Alfred Noyes Poems)
- Five Critcisms (Alfred Noyes Poems)
- Michael Oaktree (Alfred Noyes Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, Life Poems, World Poems, Night Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Art Poems, Spring Poems, Books Poems, Age Poems, Winter Poems, Madness PoemsBased on Keywords: madcap, broadcloth, touchstone, jolt, arden, whetstone, bowler, ludgate, elfin-land
- The Wild Knight (Gilbert Keith Chesterton Poems)
- Mogg Megone - Part I. (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Palestine; A Prize Poem, Recited In The Theatre, Oxford (Reginald Heber Poems)
- The Island: Canto IV. (Lord George Gordon Byron Poems)