English poem
“Mary’S Ghost.”
by Thomas Hood (1799–1845)
“’Twas in the middle of the night, To sleep Young William tried; When Mary’s Ghost came stealing in, And stood at his bed-side.”
“O William dear! O William dear! My rest eternal ceases; Alas! my everlasting peace, Is broken into pieces.”
“I thought the last of all my cares, Would end with my last minute; But though I went to my long home, I did not stay long in it.”
“The body-snatchers they have come, And made a snatch at me; It’s very hard them kind of men, Won’t let a body be.”
You thought that I was buried deep, Quite decent to the eye; With roses growing o’er my grave, In Dr-mm-nd’s Rosary.
But William dear, my rest was short, It was not very chary; Them boney-men, they did march in, And bone away your Mary.
I wish you’d speak to Mr. D. Who owes the patent ground; And tell him that his patent graves, Are neither safe nor sound.
I vow that his new land-of-tombs, Made so genteel and pretty; Is not a bit more safer than, Old Tombland in the City.
Alas! it is a joint-stock-thing, The shares are down so low; E’re long they’ll break up all the banks, Of Dr-mm-nd, Son & Co.
My tender body was pack’d-up, And in a sack did go; To be a little body at, Sir Dalley’s great depôt.
I was cut up as Stratford was, And Y-ll-ly from Carrow; Came stealing in--and stole away, My brains and spinal-marrow.
I vow’d that you should have my hand, But fate gives us denial; You’ll find it there at Doctor Wr-ght’s, In spirits and a phial.
How very hard my William dear,-- How very hard the loss is; That both my legs should have to walk, The Surgery at Cr-ss’s.
And that my arms,--the tender arms, That now in death do part us; Should both of them be taken down, To dwell at Doctor C-rt-r’s.
As for my eyes,--the lovely eyes, That once beam’d from their sockets; You’ll find them both at Mr. H-ll’s, In his large breeches-pockets.
My very skull was lent to St-rk, Without any apology; And all my lumps and bumps he found, That are in Craniology.
But when my skull came back from St-rk, That clever organ-finder; It was found out that Cr-wc--r had, Pluck’d out--every grinder.
As for my feet,--the little feet, You used to call so pretty; There’s one I know at the Town-close, The t’other’s in the city.
The Pupils dear, them sweet young men, I vow they wrote on vellum; A letter to the Doctors big, And got my cerebellum.
As for my hair--the auburn hair, You used to love so well; Alas! it’s gone to deck the head, Of lovely Mrs. B-ll.
My very liver and my lungs, E’en them were not forgot; But given to them cruel men, Long J-hns-n and Page Sc-tt.
I thought I should have lost a rib, And many other stores; But Doctor Ev-ns took instead, A rib from Brazen-doors.
To say where my soft kidneys are, The Newspapers will tell; Therefore you need not ring at night, At “Doctor Engl-nd’s Bell.”
To boil me down--did Doctor Pure, Affirm ’twould be a sin; And then Old J-rv-s wink’d his eye, And swore he’d tan my skin.
I can’t tell where my head is gone, But M-lls and N-ch-ls can; Also my trunk which is to go, By M-n-ym-nt’s night-van.
I wish you’d go to Mr. M. And save me such a ride; “I don’t half like the outside place, They’ve took for my inside.”
“The cock it crows--I must be gone! My William we must part! But I’ll be yours in death--altho’ Sweet N-rg-te has my heart.”
“Don’t go to weep upon my grave, And think that there I be; They hav’n’t left an atom there, Of my anatomie.”