Читать книгу Browning's Shorter Poems - Robert Browning - Страница 15

An hour they sat in council;[page 3]

At length the Mayor broke silence:

"For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell,

I wish I were a mile hence!

It's easy to bid one rack one's brain—

40I'm sure my poor head aches again,

I've scratched it so, and all in vain.

Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!"

Just as he said this, what should hap

At the chamber door but a gentle tap?

"Bless us," cried the Mayor, "what's that?"

(With the Corporation as he sat,

Looking little, though wondrous fat;

Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister

Than a too-long-opened oyster,

50Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous

For a plate of turtle, green and glutinous)

"Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?

Anything like the sound of a rat

Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!"