Cover image for

Song Book of Quong Lee of Limehouse

Author Thomas Burke
Categories Poetry, Music
Language English
Word count 5,259
Excerpt

urls
Tossed me a smile; and suddenly Pennyfields
Grew from darkness to light, and the light of the stars
Grew pale.

I may not see her again, but I hold her smile in my heart, And she is with me in my shop and about the streets.
My shop may tumble down;
West India Dock may some time suffer a drought;
Grief and Joy come for a day;
And Hope and Fear, and Desire and Deed
Arise and pass, and are no more;
But the beauty born of her quickened smile
Can never die.

Of a National Cash Register

Last week this person, desiring to make it known
That he was in all ways moving up to the date,
Introduced into his insignificant shop
A machine-that-counts,
Called a National Cash Register,
Which announces to refined and intelligent customers
The amounts of their purchases.

This week this person purchased a whole days' amusement;
And the amount he paid for this was another's discomfiture and pain. And, after a night of cogitatio