Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous | | I Am a Friar of Orders Gray | | John O’Keeffe (1747–1833) |
| | From the Opera of “Robin Hood”
I AM a friar of orders gray, | |
| And down in the valleys I take my way; | |
| I pull not blackberry, haw, or hip,— | |
| Good store of venison fills my scrip; | |
| My long bead-roll I merrily chant; | 5 |
| Where’er I walk no money I want; | |
| And why I ’m so plump the reason I tell,— | |
| Who leads a good life is sure to live well. | |
| What baron or squire, | |
| Or knight of the shire, | 10 |
| Lives half so well as a holy friar? | |
| |
| After supper of heaven I dream, | |
| But that is a pullet and clouted cream; | |
| Myself, by denial, I mortify— | |
| With a dainty bit of a warden-pie; | 15 |
| I ’m clothed in sackcloth for my sin,— | |
| With old sack wine I ’m lined within; | |
| A chirping cup is my matin song, | |
| And the vesper’s bell is my bowl, ding dong. | |
| What baron or squire, | 20 |
| Or knight of the shire, | |
| Lives half so well as a holy friar? | | | | |
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