Willow's forge, and other poems

Chapter 21: A Deuced Moral Lay

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About This Book

A varied set of poems mixes ballads, lyrical meditations, cant songs, and devotional sequences to evoke both rural and urban landscapes while probing longing, loss, faith, and the uncanny. Some pieces adopt narrative ballad forms to tell haunted or elegiac stories; others offer intimate prayers, mystical reflections, or ironic streetwise verses that capture modern motion and twilight. The collection balances storytelling energy with devotional and folkloric imagery, moving between direct emotion and contemplative spiritual seeking across concise and narrative-driven lyric modes.

A Deuced Moral Lay

Oh lads that are quier on the rum-padding lay,

That saddle your prancers at waning of day,

That ride to the tavern at dawning,

Take warning,

For a dell with a scampsman the dickens ’ull play.

In gaol a full dozen of rum-pads are lying,

And for Dolly and Molly and Polly are sighing,

But those very same troublesome fair

Sent ’em there,

And they’ll all curse their morts when it comes to the dying.

Let the gemman who wants to bing wide of the crap

Beware of his dell, for she’s certain to rap—

There I’ve tipped you a deuced moral lay,

So good day,

I’m off to lie soft in my Barbara’s lap.