THERES a joy without canker or cark,
There s a pleasure eternally new,
T is to gloat on the glaze and the mark
Of china that s ancient and blue;
Unchippd, all the centuries through
It has passd, since the chime of it rang,
And they fashiond it, figure and hue,
In the reign of the Emperor Hwang.
These dragons (their tails, you remark,
Into bunches of gillyflowers grew),
When Noah came out of the ark,
Did these lie in wait for his crew?
They snorted, they snappd, and they slew,
They were mighty of fin and of fang,
And their portraits Celestials drew
In the reign of the Emperor Hwang.
Here s a pot with a cot in a park,
In a park where the peach-blossoms blew,
Where the lovers eloped in the dark,
Lived, died, and were changed into two
Bright birds that eternally flew
Through the boughs of the may, as they sang;
T is a tale was undoubtedly true
In the reign of the Emperor Hwang.
ENVOY
Come, snarl at my ecstasies, do,
Kind critic; your tongue has a tang,
Buta sage never heeded a shrew
In the reign of the Emperor Hwang.