John Drew

For Perfect Form there are but few
That can compare with Mr. Drew;
A Form most fittingly displayed
In rôles from London, tailor-made
By Messrs. Maughn, Pinero, Jones,
In quiet, gentlemanly tones.
The Nouveaux-Riches flock, day by day,
To learn from John how to display
(Without unnecessary gloom)
The manners of the drawing-room.
This possibly may be the cause
(Or one of them) why John Drew draws.

Oliver Herford

Oliver Herford was born in England on December 2, 1860. He was a British-born American writer, artist, and illustrator, often referred to as 'The American Oscar Wilde' for his sharp wit and humorous works. Herford authored and illustrated many books for children and adults, contributing to magazines such as "The Criterion", "Life", and "Punch". He died on July 5, 1935, in France.

Oliver Herford

To Fashion

Oliver Herford, Simple Poetry

The Sphinx

Oliver Herford, Simple Poetry

Brander Matthews

Oliver Herford, Simple Poetry

Henrik Ibsen

Oliver Herford, Simple Poetry

English

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John S. Sargent

Here's Sargent doing the Duchess X
In pink velours and pea-green checks.
"It helps," says he, "to lift your Grace
A bit above the commonplace."

Oliver Herford

Daniel Frohman

I love to picture Daniel Frohman
In costume of a noble Roman.
For Dan has just the style of hair,
That Julius Cæsar used to wear.

Oliver Herford

The Well-Dressed Children.

Here's flowery taffeta for Mary's new gown:
    Here's black velvet, all the rage, for Dick's birthday coat.
Pearly buttons for you, Mary, all the way down,
    Lace ruffles, Dick, for you; you'll be a man of note.

Mary, here I've bought you a green gingham shade
    And a silk purse brocaded with roses gold and blue,
You'll learn to hold them proudly like colours on parade.
    No banker's wife in all the town half so grand as you.

I've bought for young Diccon a long walking-stick,
    Yellow gloves, well tanned, at Woodstock village made.
I'll teach you to flourish 'em and show your name is DICK,
    Strutting by your sister's side with the same parade.

On Sunday to church you go, each with a book of prayer:
    Then up the street and down the aisles, eve...

Robert von Ranke Graves

The Duke And The Duchess

[THE DUKE.]
Small titles and orders
For Mayors and Recorders
I get - and they're highly delighted.
M.P.s baronetted,
Sham Colonels gazetted,
And second-rate Aldermen knighted.
Foundation-stone laying
I find very paying,
It adds a large sum to my makings.
At charity dinners
The best of speech-spinners,
I get ten per cent on the takings!

[THE DUCHESS.]
I present any lady
Whose conduct is shady
Or smacking of doubtful propriety;
When Virtue would quash her
I take and whitewash her
And launch her in first-rate society.
I recommend acres
Of clumsy dressmakers -
Their fit and their finishing touches;
A sum in addition
They pay for permission
To say that they make for the Duchess!

[THE DUKE.]
Those pr...

William Schwenck Gilbert

A New John Bull

A tall, slight, English gentleman,
With an eyeglass to his eye;
He mostly says Good-Bai to you,
When he means to say Good-bye;
He shakes hands like a ladies man,
For all the world to see,
But they know, in Corners of the World.
No ladies man is he.
A tall, slight English gentleman,
Who hates to soil his hands;
He takes his mothers drawing-room
To the most outlandish lands;
And when, through Hells we dream not of,
His battery prevails,
He cleans the grime of gunpowder
And blue blood from his nails.

Hes what our blokes in Egypt call
A decent kinder cove.
And if the Pyramids should fall?
Hed merely say Bai Jove!
And if the stones should block his path
For a twelve-month, or a day,
Hed call on Sergeant Whatsisname<...

Henry Lawson

The Gentlemen Of Dickens

The gentlemen of Dickens
Were mostly very poor,
And innocent of grammar,
And of parentage obscure;
But rich or poor or thriving,
Of high or lowly birth,
The gentlemen of Dickens
Were the grandest on the earth.

The gentlemen of Dickens,
They wore no fancy names,
Like Reginald or Percy
Fitzgerald or FitzJames;
But names for fools to laugh at,
That sound like hob-nailed boots,
Like Newman Noggs and Knubbles,
Toodles and Mr Toots.

Theyd little save their kindness,
Their honesty and truth;
They mostly came embarrassed,
And stammering and uncouth;
But the gentlemen of Dickens,
Their women and their girls,
Could speak their minds if need be
To ladies and to earls.

But one who wore a title
A lesson, too, ...

Henry Lawson