Belloc Verses - that's a good idea, haven't read all the Cautionary Verses or Bad Beasts for years.
The cover gave me a tiny shock – I recognise this.
The Nonesuch edition, published 1954 - I must have borrowed it from another library while still a teenager, it all just came rushing back.
I even vaguely remembered that there was more than just the children’s verse, though I do not remember any grabbing my attention at the time, or of having come across any of them since.
There is much to admire in his verses & sonnets for adults.
This one, beautifully poignant about the death of a child, goes near to the very top of my favourites
Your life is like a little winter’s day
Whose sad sun rises late to set too soon;
You have just come—why will you go away,
Making an evening of what should be noon?
Your life is like a little flute complaining
A long way off, beyond the willow trees;
A long way off, and nothing left remaining
But memory of a music on the breeze.
Your life is like a pitiful leave-taking
Wept in a dream before a man’s awaking,
A Call with only shadows to attend:
A Benediction whispered and belated
Which has no fruit beyond a consecrated,
A consecrated silence at the end
Incidentally, the introduction to the Collection says that Belloc himself never applied the word poems to his work, referring always to verse or sonnets
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