Verses and Translations | Page 4

fairy suction!
"She wore" her natural "roses, the night when first we met" - Her golden hair was gleaming 'neath the coercive net:?"Her brow was like the snawdrift," her step was like Queen Mab's, And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at Crabb's.
The parlour-boarder chasseed tow'rds her on graceful limb;?The onyx decked his bosom--but her smiles were not for him: With ME she danced--till drowsily her eyes "began to blink," And _I_ brought raisin wine, and said, "Drink, pretty creature, drink!"
And evermore, when winter comes in his garb of snows,?And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he grows;?Shall I--with that soft hand in mine--enact ideal Lancers,?And dream I hear demure remarks, and make impassioned answers:-
I know that never, never may her love for me return -?At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised concern -?But ever shall I bless that day: (I don't bless, as a rule, The days I spent at "Dr. Crabb's Preparatory School.")
And yet--we two MAY meet again--(Be still, my throbbing heart!) - Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and raspberry tart:- One night I saw a vision--'Twas when musk-roses bloom?I stood--WE stood--upon a rug, in a sumptuous dining-room:
One hand clasped hers--one easily reposed upon my hip -?And "BLESS YE!" burst abruptly from Mr. Goodchild's lip:?I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an answering gleam - My heart beat wildly--and I woke, and lo! it was a dream.
GEMINI AND VIRGO.
Some vast amount of years ago,
Ere all my youth had vanished from me,?A boy it was my lot to know,
Whom his familiar friends called Tommy.
I love to gaze upon a child;
A young bud bursting into blossom;?Artless, as Eve yet unbeguiled,
And agile as a young opossum:
And such was he. A calm-browed lad,
Yet mad, at moments, as a hatter:?Why hatters as a race are mad
I never knew, nor does it matter.
He was what nurses call a 'limb;'
One of those small misguided creatures,?Who, though their intellects are dim,
Are one too many for their teachers:
And, if you asked of him to say
What twice 10 was, or 3 times 7,?He'd glance (in quite a placid way)
From heaven to earth, from earth to heaven:
And smile, and look politely round,
To catch a casual suggestion;?But make no effort to propound
Any solution of the question.
And so not much esteemed was he
Of the authorities: and therefore?He fraternized by chance with me,
Needing a somebody to care for:
And three fair summers did we twain
Live (as they say) and love together;?And bore by turns the wholesome cane
Till our young skins became as leather:
And carved our names on every desk,
And tore our clothes, and inked our collars;?And looked unique and picturesque,
But not, it may be, model scholars.
We did much as we chose to do;
We'd never heard of Mrs. Grundy;?All the theology we knew
Was that we mightn't play on Sunday;
And all the general truths, that cakes
Were to be bought at four a-penny,?And that excruciating aches
Resulted if we ate too many:
And seeing ignorance is bliss,
And wisdom consequently folly,?The obvious result is this -
That our two lives were very jolly.
At last the separation came.
Real love, at that time, was the fashion;?And by a horrid chance, the same
Young thing was, to us both, a passion.
Old POSER snorted like a horse:
His feet were large, his hands were pimply,?His manner, when excited, coarse:-
But Miss P. was an angel simply.
She was a blushing gushing thing;
All--more than all--my fancy painted;?Once--when she helped me to a wing
Of goose--I thought I should have fainted.
The people said that she was blue:
But I was green, and loved her dearly.?She was approaching thirty-two;
And I was then eleven, nearly.
I did not love as others do;
(None ever did that I've heard tell of;)?My passion was a byword through
The town she was, of course, the belle of.
Oh sweet--as to the toilworn man
The far-off sound of rippling river;?As to cadets in Hindostan
The fleeting remnant of their liver -
To me was ANNA; dear as gold
That fills the miser's sunless coffers;?As to the spinster, growing old,
The thought--the dream--that she had offers.
I'd sent her little gifts of fruit;
I'd written lines to her as Venus;?I'd sworn unflinchingly to shoot
The man who dared to come between us:
And it was you, my Thomas, you,
The friend in whom my soul confided,?Who dared to gaze on her--to do,
I may say, much the same as I did.
One night I SAW him squeeze her hand;
There was no doubt about the matter;?I said he must resign, or stand
My vengeance--and he chose the latter.
We met, we 'planted' blows on blows:
We fought as long as we were able:?My rival had a bottle-nose,
And both my speaking eyes were sable.
When the school-bell cut short our strife,
Miss P. gave both of us a plaster;?And in a week became the wife
Of Horace Nibbs, the writing-master.
? * *
I loved her then--I'd love her still,
Only one must not love Another's:?But thou and I, my Tommy, will,
When we again meet, meet as brothers.
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