Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: IV. Ingenuities: Oddities | | A Riddle | | Catherine Fanshawe (1765–1834) |
| | The Letter “H”
’T WAS 1 in heaven pronounced, and ’t was muttered in hell, | |
| And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell; | |
| On the confines of earth ’t was permitted to rest, | |
| And the depths of the ocean its presence confessed; | |
| ’T will be found in the sphere when ’t is riven asunder, | 5 |
| Be seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder. | |
| ’T was allotted to man with his earliest breath, | |
| Attends him at birth, and awaits him in death, | |
| Presides o’er his happiness, honor and health, | |
| Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth | 10 |
| In the heaps of the miser ’t is hoarded with care, | |
| But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir. | |
| It begins every hope, every wish it must bound, | |
| With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crowned. | |
| Without it the soldier, the seaman may roam, | 15 |
| But woe to the wretch who expels it from home! | |
| In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found, | |
| Nor e’en in the whirlwind of passion be drowned. | |
| ’T will not soften the heart; but though deaf be the ear, | |
| It will make it acutely and instantly hear. | 20 |
| Yet in shade let it rest, like a delicate flower, | |
| Ah, breathe on it softly,—it dies in an hour. | |
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