1922: The Laws of God, The Laws of Man by A.E. Housman

 

The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.

 

First published in the 1922 collection Lost Poems.  

1842: Solomon Grundy

 

 

"Here lies ye bodye of Solomon Grundy. Died on Saturday..." An illustration from Clara E. Atwood's 1901 A Book of Nursery Rhymes

 Like many of my generation I encountered the Solomon Grundy rhyme from the Batman games and cartoons. DC Comics have a character inspired by the rhyme*, he's sort of an intelligent zombie like creature equivalent to a Voodoo (in popular culture, not the real religious practices) Zombie. I was surprised to learn just how old the rhyme is, having first appeared in print in 1842 in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips. 

 Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy

As a child I was more family with another day of the week rhyme, Monday's Child. I don't know much about the character or how the rhyme plays into him beyond being dead, but I still think it's a good example of what can come out of a spark of inspiration. 

 

* The Wikipedia page for the character was the top hit when I searched Solomon Grundy without specifying I was looking for a poem. 

1895: A Garland for May day

 

Happy May Day