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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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                  <text>Lydia Craig; Emily Middleton</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1836_The_Strange_Gentleman_Hes_Mad_Mad_Mad.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'He’s Mad – Mad – Mad.' &lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman &lt;/em&gt;(Lord Chamberlain’s Copy, 1836).&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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              <text>All He’s Mad – Mad – Mad. Alas! Poor lad Like a March Hare he’s Mad. Overton Quick seize him I say. And take him away – Mrs Nooke Be careful I pray Stranger Only hear what I say. All He’s Mad – Mad – Mad! etc. Overton To his bedroom now take him. Tom If he’s restive, I’ll shake him Mrs N. When asleep, pray don’t wake him Tom Oh, I’ll never forsake him. All He’s Mad – Mad – Mad! etc. Stranger Let me go Overton Hold him fast We’ve got him at last Mrs N. His sanity’s past Tom His die now is cast All He’s Mad – Mad – Mad! etc.</text>
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                <text>From Act 2, Scene 1 of &lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&lt;/em&gt; (Lord Chamberlain’s Copy, 1836).</text>
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                <text>&lt;span&gt;'He’s Mad – Mad – Mad.' &lt;em&gt;The Strange&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Gentleman&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Letters of Charles Dickens. The&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pilgrim Edition.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;Edited by Madeline House and Graham Storey. Volume 1 (1820-1839), p. 697. Oxford University Press, 1965.&lt;/span&gt;</text>
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                <text>Dickens, Charles. 'He’s Mad – Mad – Mad.' &lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&lt;/em&gt; (1836). &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836_The_Strange_Gentleman_Hes_Mad_Mad_Mad"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836_The_Strange_Gentleman_Hes_Mad_Mad_Mad&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt; He’s Mad – Mad – Mad.&lt;br /&gt;Alas! Poor lad&lt;br /&gt;Like a March Hare he’s Mad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Overton&lt;/em&gt; Quick seize him I say.&lt;br /&gt;And take him away –&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mrs Nooke&lt;/em&gt; Be careful I pray&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Stranger&lt;/em&gt; Only hear what I say.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt; He’s Mad – Mad – Mad! &amp;amp;c.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Overton&lt;/em&gt; To his bedroom now take him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tom&lt;/em&gt; If he’s restive, I’ll shake him&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mrs N.&lt;/em&gt; When asleep, pray don’t wake him&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tom&lt;/em&gt; Oh, I’ll never forsake him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt; He’s Mad – Mad – Mad! &amp;amp;c.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Stranger&lt;/em&gt; Let me go&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Overton&lt;/em&gt; Hold him fast&lt;br /&gt;We’ve got him at last&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mrs N.&lt;/em&gt; His sanity’s past&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tom&lt;/em&gt; His die now is cast&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt; He’s Mad – Mad – Mad! &amp;amp;c.</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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                  <text>Lydia Craig; Emily Middleton</text>
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              <text>Oh, a dainty plant is the Ivy green, That creepeth o’er ruins old! Of right choice food are his meals, I ween, In his cell so lone and cold. The wall must be crumbled, the stone decayed, To pleasure his dainty whim: And the mouldering dust that years have made Is a merry meal for him. Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the Ivy green. Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings, And a staunch old heart has he. How closely he twineth, how tight he clings, To his friend the huge Oak Tree! And slily he traileth along the ground, And his leaves he gently waves, As he joyously hugs and crawleth round The rich mould of dead men’s graves. Creeping where grim death hath been, A rare old plant is the Ivy green. Whole ages have fled and their works decayed, And nations have scattered been; But the stout old Ivy shall never fade, From its hale and hearty green. The brave old plant, in its lonely days, Shall fatten upon the past: For the stateliest building man can raise Is the Ivy’s food at last. Creeping on, where time has been, A rare old plant is the Ivy green.</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span&gt;'The Ivy Green.'&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;Issue 3, Chapter 6 (May 1836): p. 55.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, &lt;/em&gt;Chapter 6. Number 3 (May 1836), p. 55. &lt;em&gt;UVic Libraries,&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href="https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/generic_works/d9b13cdd-9d78-4f71-947e-5ad5fb7d50e4?"&gt;https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/generic_works/d9b13cdd-9d78-4f71-947e-5ad5fb7d50e4?&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;UVic Libraries, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>Dickens, Charles. 'The Ivy Green' from &lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.&lt;/em&gt; Issue 3, Chapter 6 (May 1836), p. 55. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search.&lt;/em&gt; Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>From&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Pickwick Papers, &lt;/em&gt;ch. 6, number 3 (May 1836).</text>
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                <text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Oh, a dainty plant is the Ivy green,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;That creepeth o’er ruins old!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Of right choice food are his meals, I ween,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;In his cell so lone and cold.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;The wall must be crumbled, the stone decayed,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;To pleasure his dainty whim:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And the mouldering dust that years have made&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Is a merry meal for him.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Creeping where no life is seen,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A rare old plant is the Ivy green.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And a staunch old heart has he.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;How closely he twineth, how tight he clings,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;To his friend the huge Oak Tree!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And slily he traileth along the ground,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And his leaves he gently waves,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;As he joyously hugs and crawleth round&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;The rich mould of dead men’s graves.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Creeping where grim death hath been,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A rare old plant is the Ivy green.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Whole ages have fled and their works decayed,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And nations have scattered been;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;But the stout old Ivy shall never fade,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;From its hale and hearty green.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;The brave old plant, in its lonely days,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Shall fatten upon the past:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;For the stateliest building man can raise&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Is the Ivy’s food at last.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Creeping on, where time has been,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A rare old plant is the Ivy green. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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              <text>Can I view thee panting, lying On thy stomach, without sighing? Can I unmoved see thee dying On a log, Expiring frog? Say, have fiends in shape of boys, With wild halloo and brutal noise, Hunted thee from marshy joys, With a dog, Expiring frog?</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1836-08_Pickwick_Papers_Ode_to_an_Expiring_Frog.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'Ode to an Expiring Frog. &lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.&lt;/em&gt; Issue 6, Chapter 15 (August 1836): p. 148.&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, &lt;/em&gt;Chapter 15, Number 6 (August 1836), p.148. &lt;em&gt;UVic Libraries, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/file_sets/070f8b17-ceef-4687-9ce5-e81bb81c1ac3?locale=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/file_sets/070f8b17-ceef-4687-9ce5-e81bb81c1ac3?locale=en&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;Dickens, Charles. 'Ode to an Expiring Frog' from &lt;i&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. &lt;/i&gt;Issue 6, Chapter 15 (August 1836), p. 148. &lt;i&gt;Dickens Search. &lt;/i&gt;Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-08-Pickwick_Papers_Ode_to_an_Expiring_Frog"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-08-Pickwick_Papers_Ode_to_an_Expiring_Frog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                <text>From &lt;em&gt;The Pickwick Papers &lt;/em&gt;issue 6, ch. 15 (August 1836).</text>
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                <text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Can I view thee panting, lying&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;On thy stomach, without sighing?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Can I unmoved see thee dying&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;On a log,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Expiring frog?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Say, have fiends in shape of boys,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;With wild halloo and brutal noise,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Hunted thee from marshy joys,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;With a dog,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Expiring frog?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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                  <text>Lydia Craig; Emily Middleton</text>
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              <text>I care not for Spring; on his fickle wing, Let the blossoms and buds be borne: He wooes them amain with his treacherous rain, And he scatters them ere the morn. An inconstant elf, he knows not himself, Nor his own changing mind an hour, He’ll smile in your face, and, with wry grimace, He’ll wither your youngest flower. Let the Summer sun to his bright home run, He shall never be sought by me; When he’s dimmed by a cloud I can laugh aloud, And care not how sulky he be! For his darling child is the madness wild That sports in fierce fever’s train; And when love is too strong, it don’t last long, As many have found to their pain. A mild harvest night, by the tranquil light Of the modest and gentle moon, Has a far sweeter sheen, for me, I ween, Than the broad and unblushing noon. But every leaf awakens my grief, As it lieth beneath the tree; So let Autumn air be never so far, It by no means agrees with me. But my song I troll out, for CHRISTMAS stout, The heart, the true, and the bold; A bumper I drain, and with might and main Give three cheers for this Christmas old! We’ll usher him in with a merry din That shall gladden his joyous heart, And we’ll keep him up, while there’s bite or sup, And in fellowship good, we’ll part. In his fine honest pride, he scorns to hide One jot of his hard-weather scars; They’re no disgrace, for there’s much the same trace On the cheeks of our bravest tars. Then again I sing till the roof doth ring, And it echoes from wall to wall – To the stout old wight, fair welcome to-night, As the King of the Seasons all!</text>
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              <text>&lt;em&gt;The Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt;</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1836-12_Pickwick_Papers_A_Christmas_Carol.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'A Christmas Carol.' &lt;em&gt;The Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt;. Issue 10, ch. 28 (December 1836): p. 298.&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, &lt;/em&gt;Chapter 28.&amp;nbsp;Number 10 (December 1836), pp. 297-298. &lt;em&gt;UVic Libraries, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/generic_works/003c9690-060f-4e1a-bc46-712154b6a510?"&gt;https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/generic_works/003c9690-060f-4e1a-bc46-712154b6a510?&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;i&gt;UVic Libraries, &lt;/i&gt;Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial, &lt;span class="s1"&gt;&lt;a href="https://creativecommons.org/lice%20nses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://creativecommons.org/lice nses/by-nc/4.0/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-converted-space"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;Dickens, Charles. 'A Christmas Carol' from &lt;i&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. &lt;/i&gt;Issue 10, Chapter 28 (December 1836): pp. 297-298. &lt;i&gt;Dickens Search. &lt;/i&gt;Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-12_Pickwick_Papers_A_Christmas_Carol"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-12_Pickwick_Papers_A_Christmas_Carol&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                <text>From &lt;em&gt;The Pickwick Papers, &lt;/em&gt;ch. 28, no. 10 (December 1836).</text>
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                <text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;I care not for Spring; on his fickle wing,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Let the blossoms and buds be borne:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;He wooes them amain with his treacherous rain,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And he scatters them ere the morn.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;An inconstant elf, he knows not himself,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Nor his own changing mind an hour,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;He’ll smile in your face, and, with wry grimace,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;He’ll wither your youngest flower.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Let the Summer sun to his bright home run,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;He shall never be sought by me;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;When he’s dimmed by a cloud I can laugh aloud,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And care not how sulky he be!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;For his darling child is the madness wild&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;That sports in fierce fever’s train;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And when love is too strong, it don’t last long,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;As many have found to their pain.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A mild harvest night, by the tranquil light&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Of the modest and gentle moon,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Has a far sweeter sheen, for me, I ween,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Than the broad and unblushing noon.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;But every leaf awakens my grief,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;As it lieth beneath the tree;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;So let Autumn air be never so far,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;It by no means agrees with me.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;But my song I troll out, for CHRISTMAS stout,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;The heart, the true, and the bold;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A bumper I drain, and with might and main&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Give three cheers for this Christmas old!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;We’ll usher him in with a merry din&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;That shall gladden his joyous heart,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And we’ll keep him up, while there’s bite or sup,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And in fellowship good, we’ll part.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;In his fine honest pride, he scorns to hide&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;One jot of his hard-weather scars;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;They’re no disgrace, for there’s much the same trace&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;On the cheeks of our bravest tars.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Then again I sing till the roof doth ring,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And it echoes from wall to wall –&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;To the stout old wight, fair welcome to-night,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;As the King of the Seasons all!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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                  <text>Lydia Craig; Emily Middleton</text>
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              <text>Brave lodgings for one, brave lodgings for one, A few feet of cold earth, when life is done; A stone at the head, a stone at the feet, A rich, juicy meal for the worms to eat; Rank grass over head, and damp clay around, Brave lodgings for one, these, in holy ground!</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1836-12_Pickwick_Papers_Gabriel_Grubs_Song.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'Gabriel Grub's Song.' &lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club&lt;/em&gt;. Issue 10, Chapter 29 (December 1836): p. 300.&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. &lt;/i&gt;Issue 10, Chapter 29 (December 1836), p. 300. &lt;i&gt;UVic Libraries,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href="https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/file_sets/bf08b770-6776-47b5-be67-433295ac4b4a?locale=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-converted-space"&gt; https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/file_sets/bf08b770-6776-47b5-be67-433295ac4b4a?locale=en&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                <text>Dickens, Charles. 'The Ivy Green' from The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Issue 10, Chapter 29 (December 1836), p. 300. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search.&lt;/em&gt; Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-12-Pickwick_Papers_Gabriel_Grubs_Song"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-12-Pickwick_Papers_Gabriel_Grubs_Song&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Brave lodgings for one, brave lodgings for one,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A few feet of cold earth, when life is done;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A stone at the head, a stone at the feet,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A rich, juicy meal for the worms to eat;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Rank grass over head, and damp clay around,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Brave lodgings for one, these, in holy ground!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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              <text>Now, if I don't make The completest mistake That ever put man in a rage, This bird of two weathers Has moulted his feathers, And left them in some other cage.</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1836-after-Now_if_I_dont_make_the_completest_mistake.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'Now if I don't make the completest mistake.' Autograph Album of Mrs. S. C. Hall (after 1836).&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>'Now if I don't make the completest mistake'</text>
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                <text>Held at The New York Public Library's Archives &amp;amp; Manuscripts, &lt;a href="http://archives.nypl.org/brg/19176#c218463" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;http://archives.nypl.org/brg/19176#c218463&lt;/a&gt;. Quoted in Hall, S.C. and Mrs. S.C. Hall. ‘Memories of the Authors of the Age’. Art-Journal, vol.5, 1 January 1866, pp. 21-24; p. 22 and Hotten, John Camden. &lt;a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/uDUz2Uu8KxYC?hl=en&amp;amp;gbpv=1&amp;amp;bsq=completest%20mistake" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Charles Dickens, the Story of his Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (John Camden Hotten, 1870), pp. 280-281.</text>
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                <text>Dickens, Charles. 'Now if I don't make the completest mistake.' For Mrs. S.C. Hall (written after 1836): &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search.&lt;/em&gt; Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-after-Now_if_I_dont_make_the_completest_mistake"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-after-Now_if_I_dont_make_the_completest_mistake&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>Now, if I don't make&lt;br /&gt;The completest mistake&lt;br /&gt;That ever put man in a rage,&lt;br /&gt;This bird of two weathers&lt;br /&gt;Has moulted his feathers,&lt;br /&gt;And left them in some other cage.</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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              <text>Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1837-02-27_Is_She_His_Wife_Or_Something_Singular_Duet_Mr_And_Mrs_Lovetown.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'Duet: Mr. and Mrs. Lovetown.' &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt; (27 February 1837).&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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              <text>A married life, Is not all joy; But noise &amp; strife, Its charms alloy. Tho’ to please we do our best: Misery’ll our life infest – Nought is right we e’re can do, But all is wrong – &amp; all is rue! Sometimes darling, Oft times snarling Now then pleasing Then there teasing Nought but care – and nought but strife Oh, who would sigh for a married life.</text>
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                <text>From &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;span&gt;Lord Chamberlain’s Copy, &lt;/span&gt;27 February 1837).</text>
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                <text>&lt;span&gt;'Duet: Mr. and Mrs. Lovetown.' &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Letters of Charles Dickens. The&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pilgrim Edition.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;Edited by Madeline House and Graham Storey. Volume 1 (1820-1839), pp. 698-699. Oxford University Press, 1965.&lt;/span&gt;</text>
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                <text>Dickens, Charles. 'Duet: Mr. and Mrs. Lovetown.' &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt; (27 February 1837). &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1837-02-27_Is_She_His_Wife_Or_Something_Singular_Duet_Mr_And_Mrs_Lovetown"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1837-02-27_Is_She_His_Wife_Or_Something_Singular_Duet_Mr_And_Mrs_Lovetown&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>A married life,&lt;br /&gt;Is not all joy;&lt;br /&gt;But noise &amp;amp; strife,&lt;br /&gt;Its charms alloy.&lt;br /&gt;Tho’ to please we do our best:&lt;br /&gt;Misery’ll our life infest – &lt;br /&gt;Nought is right we e’re can do,&lt;br /&gt;But all is wrong – &amp;amp; all is rue!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sometimes darling,&lt;br /&gt;Oft times snarling&lt;br /&gt;Now then pleasing&lt;br /&gt;Then there teasing&lt;br /&gt;Nought but care – and nought but strife&lt;br /&gt;Oh, who would sigh for a married life.</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1837-02-27_Is_She_His_Wife_Or_Something_Singular_Song_Felix_Tapkins.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'Song – Felix Tapkins.' &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt; (27 February 1837).&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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          <description>Hidden from users and search. All items in a collection need to have the same data in the same format in order to show up in Ngram (either YYYY, YYYYMMDD, or YYYYMMDD). No combinations will work. For journalism, letters and poetry, if there is no month or day, default to the first of the month or January. So a poem with a date of March 1843 would be 18430301. A poem published in 1856 with no month or date information would be 18560101.</description>
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          <description>Hidden from users and search. Copy and paste from the Scripto transcription. Then check and uncheck HTML to strip out all formatting. Finally, search and remove any &amp;nbsp; (which is the HTML for spaces). This will prevent the Ngram picking up on irrelevant HTML.</description>
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              <text>1. It was in search of wonders so high and so low That the flying Phemominon, said he would go Where no mortal man had e’re been before For he, all the world was resolved to explore. 2. With wings made of leather, of steel, and of steam Of wonders he said, he should sure be the theme For who in the world could with him compare As like a great Goose he should fly thro’ the air. 3. No sooner the Globe he resolved o’er to range Then of linen, he packed in his bag up a change To give Mankind the bag, he thought it no harm So his bag he took with him just under his arm. 4. In the Morning it was, he first took his flight And in Greece on a Turkey, he supp’d the same night – He dined on his way, at Hamberg, upon Ham – And in Tartary, sipp’d his Bohe with the Cham. 5. In the Artic regeons, twas he took his lunc And on an Ice-burg – why he drank Ice’d punch. His heart was so full, it he couldn’t control So he sat and he sung on the famous North Pole. 6. He paid him a visit to Venus and Mars To the Sun, to the Moon, and the seven stars He shook hands with Satan, and then I declare That he had a hug of the very great Bear. 7. With a fiery Comit, he then tried his pace And in spite of its tail why he won the race But much further of, he couldn’t well roam For he sing’d all his wings, and was forced to come home. 8. Now I think that with me, you all will agree That a cleverer chap, sure there never could be But if what I have said, should not be quite right Why like him, I’ve indulged in fancy’s flight.</text>
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                <text>From &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;span&gt;Lord Chamberlain’s Copy, &lt;/span&gt;27 February 1837).</text>
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                <text>Dickens, Charles. 'Song – Felix Tapkins.' &lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt; (27 February 1837). &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1837-02-27_Is_She_His_Wife_Or_Something_Singular_Song_Felix_Tapkins"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1837-02-27_Is_She_His_Wife_Or_Something_Singular_Song_Felix_Tapkins&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;h4&gt;1.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
It was in search of wonders so high and so low&lt;br /&gt;That the flying Phemominon, said he would go&lt;br /&gt;Where no mortal man had e’re been before&lt;br /&gt;For he, all the world was resolved to explore.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;2.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
With wings made of leather, of steel, and of steam&lt;br /&gt;Of wonders he said, he should sure be the theme&lt;br /&gt;For who in the world could with him compare&lt;br /&gt;As like a great Goose he should fly thro’ the air.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;3.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
No sooner the Globe he resolved o’er to range&lt;br /&gt;Then of linen, he packed in his bag up a change&lt;br /&gt;To give Mankind the bag, he thought it no harm&lt;br /&gt;So his bag he took with him just under his arm.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;4.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
In the Morning it was, he first took his flight&lt;br /&gt;And in Greece on a Turkey, he supp’d the same night –&lt;br /&gt;He dined on his way, at Hamberg, upon Ham – &lt;br /&gt;And in Tartary, sipp’d his Bohe with the Cham.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;5.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
In the Artic regeons, twas he took his lunc &lt;br /&gt;And on an Ice-burg – why he drank Ice’d punch.&lt;br /&gt;His heart was so full, it he couldn’t control&lt;br /&gt;So he sat and he sung on the famous North Pole.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;6.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
He paid him a visit to Venus and Mars&lt;br /&gt;To the Sun, to the Moon, &amp;amp; the seven stars&lt;br /&gt;He shook hands with Satan, and then I declare&lt;br /&gt;That he had a hug of the very great Bear.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;7.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
With a fiery Comit, he then tried his pace&lt;br /&gt;And in spite of its tail why he won the race&lt;br /&gt;But much further of, he couldn’t well roam&lt;br /&gt;For he sing’d all his wings, &amp;amp; was forced to come home.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;h4&gt;8.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Now I think that with me, you all will agree&lt;br /&gt;That a cleverer chap, sure there never could be&lt;br /&gt;But if what I have said, should not be quite right&lt;br /&gt;Why like him, I’ve indulged in fancy’s flight.</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1837-05_Epitaph_Mary_Hogarth.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span&gt;'Epitaph of Mary Hogarth' (May 1837).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>Composed after the death of Mary Hogarth on 7 May 1837 (May 1837).</text>
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&lt;div class="element-text"&gt;&lt;span&gt;'Epitaph of Mary Hogarth.'&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Letters of Charles Dickens. The&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pilgrim Edition.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;Edited by Madeline House and Graham Storey. Volume 1 (1820-1839), p. 259&lt;em&gt;n&lt;/em&gt;. Oxford University Press, 1965.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
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                <text>&lt;span&gt;Dickens, Charles. 'Epitaph of Mary Hogarth' (May 1837). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dickens Search.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt; Eds. Emily Middleton and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/ 1837-05_Epitaph_Mary_Hogarth" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/&lt;br /&gt;1837-05_Epitaph_Mary_Hogarth&lt;/a&gt;.</text>
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                <text>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Mary Scott Hogarth&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Died 7th May 1837&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Young Beautiful And Good&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;God In His Mercy&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Numbered Her With His Angels&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;At the Early Age Of&lt;/div&gt;&#13;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Seventeen&lt;/div&gt;</text>
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                  <text>&lt;h4&gt;This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.&lt;/h4&gt;&#13;
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song"&gt;written to be set to music&lt;/a&gt; indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green"&gt;'The Ivy Green'&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt; (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt; as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&amp;amp;collection=&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;autograph albums&lt;/a&gt; was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When writing &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&amp;amp;collection=3&amp;amp;type=&amp;amp;tags=&amp;amp;date_search_term=&amp;amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items"&gt;letters&lt;/a&gt; to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included.&amp;nbsp;Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph"&gt;Epitaphs&lt;/a&gt; Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play"&gt;verse from Dickens's plays&lt;/a&gt;, including songs removed from&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Strange Gentleman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;before performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of &lt;em&gt;The Old Curiosity Shop&lt;/em&gt;. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection &lt;em&gt;Echoes of Infant Voices&lt;/em&gt;. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of &lt;em&gt;Dickens Search&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write"&gt;Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens &lt;em&gt;didn't &lt;/em&gt;write.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque &lt;em&gt;Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;(1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include &lt;em&gt;The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and &lt;em&gt;The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens&lt;/em&gt; (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton. In 2025, we published &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-verse-of-charles-dickens.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;(Edinburgh University Press), which includes an introduction and editorial apparatus for this verse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact"&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt; with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;The Verse of Charles Dickens.&lt;/em&gt; Edited by Lydia Craig and Emily Middleton. Edinburgh University Press, 2025; Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' &lt;em&gt;The Dickensian&lt;/em&gt; 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' &lt;em&gt;Dickens Quarterly&lt;/em&gt; 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. &lt;em&gt;Dickens Studies Annual&lt;/em&gt; 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.</text>
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                  <text>Lydia Craig; Emily Middleton</text>
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              <text>Bold Turpin vunce, on Hounslow Heath, His bold mare Bess bestrode – er; Ven there he see’d the Bishop’s coach A-comin’ along the road – er.  So he gallops close to the ‘orse’s legs, And he claps his head vithin; And the Bishop says, "Sure as eggs is eggs, This here’s the bold Turpin!” (CHORUS.) And the Bishop says, "Sure as eggs is eggs, This here’s the bold Turpin!" Says Turpin, "You shall eat your words, With a sarse of leaden bul’let;" So he puts a pistol to his mouth, And he fires it down his gul-let. The coachman, he not likin’ the job, Set off at a full gal-lop, But Dick put a couple of balls in his nob, And perwailed on him to stop. (CHORUS sarcastically.) But Dick put a couple of balls in his nob, And perwailed on him to stop.</text>
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              <text>&lt;em&gt;The Pickwick Papers&lt;/em&gt;</text>
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              <text>&lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1837-06_Pickwick_Papers_Romance.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;'Romance.' &lt;em&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club&lt;/em&gt;. Issue 15, Chapter 43 (June 1837): p. 464.&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. &lt;/i&gt;Issue 15, Chapter 43 (June 1837), p. 464. &lt;i&gt;UVic Libraries, &lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href="https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/file_sets/93a0e9d2-e383-4c75-88eb-a6cdb9d29cac?locale=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concern/file_sets/93a0e9d2-e383-4c75-88eb-a6cdb9d29cac?locale=en&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;Dickens, Charles. 'Romance' from &lt;i&gt;The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. &lt;/i&gt;Chapter 43, Number 15 (June 1837), p. 464. &lt;i&gt;Dickens Search. &lt;/i&gt;Eds. Emily &lt;span&gt;Middleton&lt;/span&gt; and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. &lt;a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1837-06-Pickwick_Papers_Romance"&gt;https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1837-06-Pickwick_Papers_Romance&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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                <text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Bold Turpin vunce, on Hounslow Heath,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;His bold mare Bess bestrode – er;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Ven there he see’d the Bishop’s coach&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;A-comin’ along the road – er.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;So he gallops close to the ‘orse’s legs,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And he claps his head vithin;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And the Bishop says, "Sure as eggs is eggs,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;This here’s the bold Turpin!”&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;(CHORUS.) &lt;em&gt;And the Bishop says, "Sure as eggs is eggs,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;This here’s the bold Turpin!"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Says Turpin, "You shall eat your words,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;With a sarse of leaden bul’let;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;So he puts a pistol to his mouth,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And he fires it down his gul-let.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;The coachman, he not likin’ the job,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;Set off at a full gal-lop,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;But Dick put a couple of balls in his nob,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And perwailed on him to stop.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;br /&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;(CHORUS &lt;em&gt;sarcastically.) But Dick put a couple of balls in his nob,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#13;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 400;"&gt;And perwailed on him to stop.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</text>
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