Dr. Faustus

Doctor Faustus was a good man,
He whipt his scholars now and then;
When he whipt he made them dance
Out of England into France;
Out of France into Spain,
And then he whipt them back again.

Walter Crane

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator, considered to be one of the most prolific and influential children's book creators of his generation. Born on August 15, 1845, and passing away on March 14, 1915, he was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and is known for his innovative contributions to children's literature. His work often combined art and poetry, aiming to educate and delight young readers.

Walter Crane

The Ass & The Enemy

Walter Crane, Simple Poetry

Hercules & The Waggoner

Walter Crane, Simple Poetry

The Absurd ABC

Walter Crane, Simple Poetry

The Horse And The Ass

Walter Crane, 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.

Nursery Rhyme. CXXVII. Scholastic.

    Doctor Faustus was a good man,
    He whipt his scholars now and then;
    When he whipp'd them he made them dance,
    Out of Scotland into France,
    Out of France into Spain,
    And then he whipp'd them back again!

Unknown

Prologue to Doctor Faustus

Light, as when dawn takes wing and smites the sea,
Smote England when his day bade Marlowe be.
No fire so keen had thrilled the clouds of time
Since Dante's breath made Italy sublime.
Earth, bright with flowers whose dew shone soft as tears,
Through Chaucer cast her charm on eyes and ears:
The lustrous laughter of the love-lit earth
Rang, leapt, and lightened in his might of mirth.
Deep moonlight, hallowing all the breathless air,
Made earth and heaven for Spenser faint and fair.
But song might bid not heaven and earth be one
Till Marlowe's voice gave warning of the sun.
Thought quailed and fluttered as a wounded bird
Till passion fledged the wing of Marlowe's word.
Faith born of fear bade hope and doubt be dumb
Till Marlowe's pride bade light or darkness come.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Hypochondriacal Pluto. A Romance.

The Hypochondriacal Pluto. A Romance. Book I.

The sullen mayor who reigns in hell,
By mortals Pluto hight,
Who thrashes all his subjects well,
Both morn and eve, as stories tell,
And rules the realms of night,
All pleasure lost in cursing once,
All joy in flogging, for the nonce.

The sedentary life he led
Upon his brazen chair
Made his hindquarters very red,
While pricks, as from a nettle-bed,
He felt both here and there:
A burning sun, too, chanced to shine,
And boiled down all his blood to brine.

'Tis true he drank full many a draught
Of Phlegethon's black flood;
By cupping, leeches, doctor's craft,
And venesection, fore and aft,
They took from him much blood.
Full many a clyster was applied,
And purging, too, was a...

Friedrich Schiller

Falstaff

'Twas in a tavern that with old age stooped
And leaned rheumatic rafters o'er his head -
A blowzed, prodigious man, which talked, and stared,
And rolled, as if with purpose, a small eye
Like a sweet Cupid in a cask of wine.
I could not view his fatness for his soul,
Which peeped like harmless lightnings and was gone;
As haps to voyagers of the summer air.
And when he laughed, Time trickled down those beams,
As in a glass; and when in self-defence
He puffed that paunch, and wagged that huge, Greek head,
Nosed like a Punchinello, then it seemed
An hundred widows swept in his small voice,
Now tenor, and now bass of drummy war.
He smiled, compact of loam, this orchard man;
Mused like a midnight, webbed with moonbeam snares
Of flitting Love; woke - and a King he st...

Walter De La Mare

The Three Doctors.

        doctoribus loetamur tribus.


1826.


Tho' many great Doctors there be,
    There are three that all Doctors out-top,
Doctor Eady, that famous M. D.,
    Doctor Southey, and dear Doctor Slop.^[1]

The purger, the proser, the bard--
    All quacks in a different style;
Doctor Southey writes books by the yard.
    Doctor Eady writes puffs by the mile!^[2]

Doctor Slop, in no merit outdone
    By his scribbling or physicking brother,
Can dose us with stuff like the one.
    Ay, and doze us with stuff like the other.

Doctor Eady good company keeps
    With "No Popery" scribes, on the walls;
Doctor Southey as gloriously sleeps
    With "No Popery" scribes on the stalls.

Do...

Thomas Moore

The Demon Of The Study

The Brownie sits in the Scotchman's room,
And eats his meat and drinks his ale,
And beats the maid with her unused broom,
And the lazy lout with his idle flail;
But he sweeps the floor and threshes the corn,
And hies him away ere the break of dawn.

The shade of Denmark fled from the sun,
And the Cocklane ghost from the barn-loft cheer,
The fiend of Faust was a faithful one,
Agrippa's demon wrought in fear,
And the devil of Martin Luther sat
By the stout monk's side in social chat.

The Old Man of the Sea, on the neck of him
Who seven times crossed the deep,
Twined closely each lean and withered limb,
Like the nightmare in one's sleep.
But he drank of the wine, and Sindbad cast
The evil weight from his back at last.

But the demon that...

John Greenleaf Whittier