Gifts

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



Give a man a horse he can ride,
Give a man a boat he can sail;
And his rank and wealth, his strength and health,
On sea nor shore shall fail.

Give a man a pipe he can smoke,
Give a man a book he can read:
And his home is bright with a calm delight,
Though the room be poor indeed.

Give a man a girl he can love,
As I, O my love, love thee;
And his heart is great with the pulse of Fate,
At home, on land, on sea.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
432

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XXXX XBXB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 417
Words 95
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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