Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/Boxiana

Boxiana.

I hate the very name of box:
It fills me full of fears;
It minds me of the woes I've felt
Since I was young in years.

They sent me to a Yorkshire school,
Where I had many knocks;
For there my schoolmates boxed my ears,
Because I couldn't box.

I packed my box, I picked the locks,
And ran away to sea;
And very soon I learned to box
The compass merrily.

I came ashore, I called a coach
And mounted on the box;
The coach upset against a post,
And gave me dreadful knocks.

I soon got well, in love I fell
And married Martha Box;
To please her will at famed Box Hill
I took a country box.

I had a pretty garden there,
All bordered round with box;
But, ah, alas! there lived next door
A certain Captain Knox.

He took my wife to see the play;—
They had a private box:
I jealous grew, and from that day
I hated Captain Knox.

I sold my house, I left my wife,
And went to Lawyer Fox,
Who tempted me to seek redress
All from a jury box.

I went to law, whose greedy maw
Soon emptied my strong box;
I lost my suit, and cash to boot,
All through that crafty Fox.

The name of box I therefore dread,
I've had so many shocks;
They'll never end; for when I'm dead
They'll nail me in a box.