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Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

The Clown’s Reply

JOHN TROTT was desired by two witty peers
To tell them the reason why asses had ears?
‘An’t please you,' quoth John, 'I’m not given to letters,
Nor dare I pretend to know more than my betters;
Howe’er, from this time I shall ne’er see your graces,
As I hope to be saved! without thinking on asses.’

#Irish #XVIIICentury

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Other works by Oliver Goldsmith...
The Poet Laberius

PRESERVED BY MACROBIUS. WHAT! no way left to shun th’ in… And save from infamy my sinking ag… Scarce half alive, oppress’d with… What in the name of dotage drives…
Part of a Prologue Written and Spoken by the Poet Laberius a Roman Knight, Whom Caesar Forced Upon the Stage

PRESERVED BY MACROBIUS. WHAT! no way left to shun th’ in… And save from infamy my sinking ag… Scarce half alive, oppress’d with… What in the name of dotage drives…
Epitaph on Thomas Parnell

THIS tomb, inscrib’d to gentle P… May speak our gratitude, but not h… What heart but feels his sweetly-m… That leads to truth through pleasu… Celestial themes confess’d his tun…
A New Simile

IN THE MANNER OF SWIFT LONG had I sought in vain to fin… A likeness for the scribbling kind… The modern scribbling kind, who wr… In wit, and sense, and nature’s sp…
Prologue to 'Zobeide’

IN these bold times, when Learnin… The distant climate and the savage… When wise Astronomers to India st… And quit for Venus, many a bright… While Botanists, all cold to smil…
An Author’s Bedchamber

DESCRIPTION OF AN AU… WHERE the Red Lion flaring o’er… Invites each passing stranger that… Where Calvert’s butt, and Parsons… Regale the drabs and bloods of Dr…
From 'she Stoops to Conquer’ a Song

Let school-masters puzzle their br… With grammar, and nonsense, and le… Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives 'genus’ a better discerning. Let them brag of their heathenish…
On Seeing Mrs. ** Perform in the Character of ****

FOR you, bright fair, the nine ad… And tune my feeble voice to sing t… The heartfelt power of every charm… Who can withstand their all-comman… See how she moves along with every…
Threnodia Augustalis: Overture - a Solemn Dirge

SACRED TO THE MEMORY… THE PRINCESS DOWAGER O… AIR—TRIO. ARISE, ye sons of worth, arise, And waken every note of woe;
An Epigram

ADDRESSED TO THE GE… A POEM, BY THE AUTHOR Worried with debts and past all ho… His pen he prostitutes t’ avoid a… ROSCOM.
Threnodia Augustalis: Overture - Pastorale

MAN SPEAKER. FAST by that shore where Thames’… Reflects new glories on his breast… Where, splendid as the youthful po… He forms a scene beyond Elysium b…
The Gift (To Iris, in Bow Street, Covent Garden)

SAY, cruel IRIS, pretty rake, Dear mercenary beauty, What annual offering shall I make… Expressive of my duty? My heart, a victim to thine eyes,
Vida’s Game of Chess

TRANSLATED ARMIES of box that sportively e… And mimic real battles in their ra… Pleased I recount; how, smit with… Two mighty Monarchs met in advers…
Eiplogue

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN… TO CONQUER’ THERE is a place, so Ariosto si… A treasury for lost and missing th… Lost human wits have places assign…
An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog

Good people all, of every sort, Give ear unto my song; And if you find it wondrous short, It cannot hold you long. In Islington there was a man



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