Why, Rome was naked once, a bastard smudge, Tumbled on straw, the denfellow of whelps, Fattened on roots, and, when a-thirst for milk, He crept benea… - Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Squats on a toad-stool under a tree A bodiless childfull of life in the gloom,
Crying with frog voice, “What shall I be?
Poor unborn ghost, for my mother killed me Scarcely alive in her wicked womb.
What shall I be? shall I creep to the egg That’s cracking asunder yonder by Nile, And with eighteen toes, And a snuff-taking nose, Make an Egyptian crocodile?
Sing, ‘Catch a mummy by the leg And crunch him with an upper jaw, Wagging tail and clenching claw; Take a bill-full from my craw, Neighbour raven, caw, O caw, Grunt, my crocky, pretty maw!”“Swine, shall I be you? Thou’rt a dear dog; But for a smile, and kiss, and pout, I much prefer your black-lipped snout, Little, gruntless, fairy hog, Godson of the hawthorn hedge. For, when Ringwood snuffs me out, And ’gins my tender paunch to grapple, Sing, ’Twixt your ancles visage wedge, And roll up like an apple.”“Serpent Lucifer, how do you do?
Of your worms and your snakes I’d be one or two; For in this dear planet of wool and of leather
’Tis pleasant to need neither shirt, sleeve, nor shoe, And have arm, leg, and belly together. Then aches your head, or are you lazy? Sing, ‘Round your neck your belly wrap, Tail-a-top, and make your cap Any bee and daisy.”“I’ll not be a fool, like the nightingale
Who sits up all midnight without any ale, Making a noise with his nose;
Nor a camel, although ’tis a beautiful back;
Nor a duck, notwithstanding the music of quack, And the webby, mud-patting toes.
I’ll be a new bird with the head of an ass, Two pigs’ feet, two mens’ feet, and two of a hen;
Devil-winged; dragon-bellied; grave-jawed, because grass Is a beard that’s soon shaved, and grows seldom again Before it is summer; so cow all the rest; The new Dodo is finished. O! come to my nest.”

If thou wilt ease thine heart
Of love and all its smart, Then sleep, dear, sleep;
And not a sorrow Hang any tear on your eyelashes; Lie still and deep, Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes
The rim o’ the sun to-morrow, In eastern sky.But wilt thou cure thine heart
Of love and all its smart, Then die, dear, die;
’Tis deeper, sweeter, Than on a rose-bank to lie dreaming With folded eye; And there alone, amid the beaming
Of Love’s stars, thou’lt meet her In eastern sky.

To sea, to sea! The calm is o’er; The wanton water leaps in sport,
And rattles down the pebbly shore; The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort,
And unseen Mermaids’ pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among. Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar: To sea, to sea! the calm is o’er.To sea, to sea! our wide-wing’d bark Shall billowy cleave its sunny way,
And with its shadow, fleet and dark, Break the caved Tritons’ azure day,
Like mighty eagle soaring light
O’er antelopes on Alpine height. The anchor heaves, the ship swings free, The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!