Absolute Twaddle: Jester

11 August, 2020 by katelaity

JESTER

We call upon the jester

To bring us jollity;

When our dark thoughts fester

We crave a laughter jubilee.

When our spirits sink

There’s nothing to be done;

It’s all in how you think–

Or else we’re gloomy, every one.

Too hard it is to wonder

If there’s simply no respite:

Gloom and rain and thunder

Fill a melancholy night.

Put your coxcomb on your head

Get your bladder on its stick;

As long as we’re not dead

We’ve got time for tricks.

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise. — William Blake

[Image via our pals at the British Library Flicker: “Recollections of Old Christmas: a masque. Performed at Grimston” By Thomas C. Croker, 1850.]