Tom O’Roughley

“Though logic choppers rule the town,
And every man and maid and boy
Has marked a distant object down,
An aimless joy is a pure joy,”
Or so did Tom O’Roughley say
That saw the surges running by,
“And wisdom is a butterfly
And not a gloomy bird of prey.

“If little planned is little sinned
But little need the grave distress.
What’s dying but a second wind?
How but in zig-zag wantonness
Could trumpeter Michael be so brave?”
Or something of that sort he said,
“And if my dearest friend were dead
I’d dance a measure on his grave.”