Classic Poem

O think on the time when you came home at night,
And supp'd upon muscles, no lily more white,
When I used to provide you with many a treat
Of as fine Melton oysters as ever were eat.

Now see what a change! all the muscles for me
May be trod under foot, or thrown into the sea;
My Joey is false! and the once sprightly tone
With which I cry'd oysters is sunk to a drone!

II.

When the last kit of salmon we sat down to broach,
And you told me your heart was as sound as a roach,
How sweet was my temper! what joys did I feel,
Little thinking you'd slip through my hands like an eel.

But my temper's now chang'd — I, that once was so mild,
I was thought to be gentle and meek as a child,
So crusty am grown, I ne'er speak a word civil,
And my customers say I'm as cross as the devil.

III.

My stall was so clean, and my tubs were so white,
They were perfectly — people would tell me — a sight:
I listen'd with joy when the folks told me so,
For my stall and my tubs were both scower'd for Joe,

But now they're all dirty, neglected they lie,
I oft take them up, and as oft throw them by,
For his sake I pleasure in cleaning them found,
He has left me, and now they're as black as the ground.