Poem by Thomas Hood

Pair’d Not Match’d

	Of wedded bliss 
	Bards sing amiss, 
I cannot make a song of it; 
	For I am small, 
	My wife is tall,
And that’s the short and long of it.

	When we debate
	It is my fate
To always have the wrong of it;
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	And when I speak
	My voice is weak,
But hers – she makes a gong of it!
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	She has, in brief,
	Command in Chief, 
And I’m but Aide-de-camp of it;
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	She gives to me
	The weakest tea, 
And takes the whole Souchong of it;
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	She’ll sometimes grip
	My buggy whip, 
And make me feel the thong of it!
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	Against my life
	She’ll take a knife,
Or fork, and dart the prong of it;
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	I sometimes think 
	I’ll take to drink, 
And hector when I’m strong of it;
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

	O, if the bell
	Would ring her knell,
I’d make a gay ding-dong of it;
	For I am small,
	And she is tall, 
And that’s the short and long of it!

1. Sonnet on Receiving a Gift
2. The World Is with Me
3. Ballad (Spring it is cheery)
4. Sonnet (By ev'ry sweet tradition of true hearts)
5. Lines on Seeing My Wife and Two Children Sleeping in the Same Chamber

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