Dame Crump.

Some dolls are ev'ry bit as good
    As little girls and boys;
They never pout or shake themselves,
    And never make a noise.

But other dollies make mistakes;
    Won't do as they are told;
Won't stand upright, or shut their eyes,
    However much you scold!

And then's the time for old Dame Crump
    To enter with her stick,
And make them mind their p's and q's;
    'Tis well if they are quick!

Richard Hunter

No biography available

Richard Hunter

The Swinging Clown.

Richard Hunter, Simple Poetry

The Coachman.

Richard Hunter, Simple Poetry

Prince Charming.

Richard Hunter, Simple Poetry

The Highlander.

Richard Hunter, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The Sea-side Doll.

There's one doll for winter,
    When ice comes and snow;
Another for spring time,
    When primroses grow.

A dolly for dark nights,
    To take into bed;
And one for the morning,
    Till lessons are said.

But this is the dolly
    To play on the sands,
You see both a pail and
    A spade in her hands.

Richard Hunter

Nursery Rhyme. CCCLIII. Games.

        [One child, called the Old Dame, sits on the floor, and the rest, joining hands, form a circle round her, and dancing, sing the following lines:]

    Children. To Beccles! to Beccles!
                            To buy a bunch of nettles!
                            Pray, old Dame, what's o'clock?

    Dame. One, going for two.

    Children. To Beccles! to Beccles!
                            To buy a bunch of nettles!
                            Pray, old Dame, what's o'clock?

    Dame. Two, going for three.

        [And so on till she reaches, "Eleven going for twelve." After this the following questions are asked, with the replies. -
        C. Where have you been?
        D. To the wood.
        C. What for?

Unknown

The Dolls

A Doll in the doll-makers house
Looks at the cradle and balls:
That is an insult to us.
But the oldest of all the dolls
Who had seen, being kept for show,
Generations of his sort,
Out-screams the whole shelf: Although
Theres not a man can report
Evil of this place,
The man and the woman bring
Hither to our disgrace,
A noisy and filthy thing.
Hearing him groan and stretch
The doll-makers wife is aware
Her husband has heard the wretch,
And crouched by the arm of his chair,
She murmurs into his ear,
Head upon shoulder leant:
My dear, my dear, oh dear,
It was an accident.

William Butler Yeats

The Dolls

"Whenever you dress me dolls, mammy,
Why do you dress them so,
And make them gallant soldiers,
When never a one I know;
And not as gentle ladies
With frills and frocks and curls,
As people dress the dollies
Of other little girls?"

Ah - why did she not answer:-
"Because your mammy's heed
Is always gallant soldiers,
As well may be, indeed.
One of them was your daddy,
His name I must not tell;
He's not the dad who lives here,
But one I love too well."

Thomas Hardy

Policeman.

When little dolls in Nurs'ry Street,
    Do anything that's wrong;
Throw stones, or knock each other down,
    Policeman comes along.

"Move on, move on," Policeman cries;
    Be sure they never fail;
For if they did not move at once,
    He'd take them off to jail.

Richard Hunter

Play.

Play, play, while as yet it is day:
While the sweet sunlight is warm on the brae!
Hark to the lark singing lay upon lay,
While the brown squirrel eats nuts on the spray
And in the apple-leaves chatters the jay!
Play, play, even as they!
What though the cowslips ye pluck will decay,
What though the grass will be presently hay?
What though the noise that ye make should dismay
Old Mrs. Clutterbuck over the way?
Play, play, for your locks will grow gray;
Even the marbles ye sport with are clay.

Play, ay in the crowded highway:
Was it not made for you? Yea, my lad, yea.
True that the babes you were bid to convey
Home may fall out or be stolen or stray;
True that the tip-cat you toss about may
Strike an old gentleman, cause him to sway,
Stumble, and ...

Charles Stuart Calverley