Alice’s “Ballad of Father William” is a parody of the Romantic poet Robert Southey’s 1799 poem “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them”
The Old Mans Comforts, & how he gained
them.
You are old, father William, the young man cried
The few locks that are left you are grey,
You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,
Now tell me the reason I pray.
In the days of my youth, father William replied
I remember’d that youth would fly fast,
And abused not my health & my vigour at first
That I never might need them at last.
You are old, father William, the young man cried,
And pleasures with youth pass away,
And yet you regret lament not the days that are gone,
Now tell me the reason I pray.
In the days of my youth, father William replied,
I remembe’d that youth could not last.
I thought of the future whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the past.
You are old, father William, the young man cried,
And life must be hastening away.
You are cheerful & love to converse upon death,
Now tell me the reason I pray.
I am cheerful young man, father Wililam replied
Let the cause thy attention engage—
In the days of my youth I remembered my God,
And He hath not forgotten my age.
S.
Image Caption:
Robert Southey (1774—1843)
The Old Man’s Comforts, and How He Gained Them
Autograph poem, signed “S” and dated ca. 1799 or later
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1987, MA 8622.
Photography by Graham S. Haber, 2015.