'To John Groves'

From a letter to John Groves (1 September 1838).

Dickens, Charles

'To John Groves.' Letter to John Groves (Early September 1838). The Letters of Charles Dickens. The Pilgrim Edition. Edited by Madeline House and Graham Storey. Volume 1 (1820-1839), pp. 432-433. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Dickens, Charles. 'To John Groves' (September 1838). Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1838-09_Letter_To_John_Groves_Poem.

Oh Mr. Groves

If so be you approves

Of writings in rhyme

Knocked off in quick time

And set down at once

By an indolent dunce

Who to Alum bay runs - 

Read these lines Mr. Groves.

For those same twenty heads

Who are coming for beds

From Cowes or from Rhyde,

Or from some hole beside,

Don’t fit up that “Tent”

Which in our room is meant

For some very small child

Of years meek and mild,

Because I’ve a wife

And I swear on my life

It would our blushes bring

To have that sort of thing, - 

So no stranger coves

If you please Mr. Groves

And when people repair 

Here, to dine in the air

Just give ‘em their grub

On some barrel or tub

In the cow-yard or garden; - 

I’ll bet a brass farden

They’ll eat as much cheese,

And cough spit and sneeze

And make as much shindy

As outside our windy;

So there put their loaves

If you please Mr. Groves.

And as Ann is a maid

By no means afraid

Of doing what’s right

By day or by night,

And perfectly able

To wait well at table,

If she’s wrong here and there

Don’t bluster and swear

But of slight faults absolve her.

Yours Truly - Revolver.