Page images
PDF
EPUB

A Reasonable Affliction

1907

It's not pleasant for a fellow when the jewel of his soul Wades through slaughter on the carpet, while her orbs in

frenzy roll;

What was I that I should murmur? Yet it gave me griev

ous pain

That she rose in social gatherings, and Searched among the Slain.

I was forced to look upon her, in my desperation dumb, Knowing well that when her awful opportunity was come She would give us battle, murder, sudden death at very least, As a skeleton of warning, and a blight upon the feast.

Once, ah! once I fell a-dreaming; some one played a polonaise

I associated strongly with those happier August days; And I mused, "I'll speak this evening," recent pangs forgotten quite

Sudden shrilled a scream of anguish: "Curfew SHALL not ring to-night!"

Ah, that sound was as a curfew, quenching rosy, warm

romance

Were it safe to wed a woman one so oft would wish in France?

Oh, as she "cull-imbed" that ladder, swift my mounting hope came down:

I am still a single cynic; she is still Cassandra Brown!

Helen Gray Cone [1859

A REASONABLE AFFLICTION

ON his death-bed poor Lubin lies:
His spouse is in despair;

With frequent cries, and mutual sighs,
They both express their care.

"A different cause," says Parson Sly,
"The same effect may give:

Poor Lubin fears that he may die;

His wife, that he may live."

Matthew Prior [1664-1721]

THE WOMAN WITH THE SERPENT'S TONGUE

SHE is not old, she is not young,

The woman with the Serpent's Tongue,
The haggard cheek, the hungering eye,
The poisoned words that wildly fly,
The famished face, the fevered hand,-
Who slights the worthiest in the land,
Sneers at the just, contemns the brave,
And blackens goodness in its grave.

In truthful numbers be she sung,
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue;
Concerning whom, Fame hints at things
Told but in shrugs and whisperings:
Ambitious from her natal hour,
And scheming all her life for power;
With little left of seemly pride;
With venomed fangs she cannot hide;
Who half makes love to you to-day,
To-morrow gives her guest away.
Burnt up within by that strange soul
She cannot slake, or yet control:
Malignant-lipped, unkind, unsweet;
Past all example indiscreet;

Hectic, and always overstrung,-
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.

To think that such as she can mar

Names that among the noblest are!

That hands like hers can touch the springs

That move who knows what men and things?

That on her will their fates have hung!

The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.

William Watson [1858

SUPPOSE

How sad if, by some strange new law,
All kisses scarred!

For she who is most beautiful

Would be most marred.

t

Fable

And we might be surprised to see

Some lovely wife

Smooth-visaged, while a seeming prude

Was marked for life.

1909

Anne Reeve Aldrich (1866-1892]

TOO CANDID BY HALF

As Tom and his wife were discoursing one day
Of their several faults in a bantering way,

Said she, "Though my wit you disparage,
I'm sure, my dear husband, our friends will attest
This much, at the least, that my judgment is best."
Quoth Tom, "So they said at our marriage."

John Godfrey Saxe [1816-1887]

FABLE

THE mountain and the squirrel

Had a quarrel,

And the former called the latter "Little Prig;"

Bun replied,

"You are doubtless very big;

But all sorts of things and weather

Must be taken in together,

To make up a year

And a sphere.

And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.

If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.

I'll not deny you make

A very pretty squirrel track;

Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;

If I cannot carry forests on my back,

Neither can you crack a nut."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882]

WOMAN'S WILL

THAT man's a fool who tries by art and skill

To stem the torrent of a woman's will:

For if she will, she will; you may depend on't-And if she won't, she won't-and there's an end on't.

Unknown

WOMAN'S WILL

MEN, dying, make their wills, but wives

Escape a task so sad;

Why should they make what all their lives

The gentle dames have had?

John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887]

PLAYS

ALAS, how soon the hours are over
Counted us out to play the lover!
And how much narrower is the stage
Allotted us to play the sage!

But when we play the fool, how wide
The theatre expands! beside,

How long the audience sits before us!
How many prompters! what a chorus!

Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864]

THE REMEDY WORSE THAN THE DISEASE

I SENT for Ratcliffe; was so ill,

That other doctors gave me over:
He felt my pulse, prescribed his pill,
And I was likely to recover.

But, when the wit began to wheeze,
And wine had warmed the politician,

Cured yesterday of my disease,

I died last night of my physician.'

Matthew Prior [1664-1731]

Certain Maxims of Hafiz

1911

THE NET OF LAW

THE net of law is spread so wide,
No sinner from its sweep may hide.

Its meshes are so fine and strong,
They take in every child of wrong.

O wondrous web of mystery!
Big fish alone escape from thee!

James Jeffrey Roche [1847-1908]

COLOGNE

IN Köln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fanged with murderous stones,
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;
I counted two and seventy stenches,

All well defined, and several stinks!

Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,

Doth wash your city of Cologne;

But tell me, Nymphs! what power divine

Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge [1772-1834]

EPITAPH ON CHARLES II

HERE lies our Sovereign Lord the King,
Whose word no man relies on,

Who never said a foolish thing,

Nor ever did a wise one.

John Wilmot [1647-1680]

CERTAIN MAXIMS OF HAFIZ

I

If It be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai,

Does not the Young Man try Its temper and pace ere he

buy?

« PreviousContinue »