Volume Iv Part 4 (1/2)

MY MISTRESS'S BOOTS

She has dancing eyes and ruby lips, Delightful boots--and away she skips

They nearly strike me dumb,-- I tremble when they come Pit-a-pat: This palpitation means These Boots are Geraldine's-- Think of that!

O, where did hunter win So delicate a skin For her feet?

You lucky little kid, You perished, so you did, For my Sweet.

The fairy st.i.tching gleams On the sides, and in the seams, And reveals That the Pixies were the wags Who tipped these funny tags, And these heels.

What soles to charm an elf!-- Had Crusoe, sick of self, Chanced to view One printed near the tide, O, how hard he would have tried For the two!

For Gerry's debonair, And innocent and fair As a rose; She's an Angel in a frock,-- She's an Angel with a clock To her hose!

The simpletons who squeeze Their pretty toes to please Mandarins, Would positively flinch From venturing to pinch Geraldine's.

Cinderella's lefts and rights To Geraldine's were frights: And I trow The Damsel, deftly shod, Has dutifully trod Until now.

Come, Gerry, since it suits Such a pretty Puss (in Boots) These to don, Set your dainty hand awhile On my shoulder, Dear, and I'll Put them on.

Frederick Locker-Lampson [1821-1895]

A GARDEN LYRIC Geraldine And I

Dite, Damasippe, deaeque Verum ob consilium donent tonsore.

We have loitered and laughed in the flowery croft, We have met under wintry skies; Her voice is the dearest voice, and soft Is the light in her wistful eyes; It is bliss in the silent woods, among Gay crowds, or in any place, To mould her mind, to gaze in her young Confiding face.

For ever may roses divinely blow, And wine-dark pansies charm By that prim box path where I felt the glow Of her dimpled, trusting arm, And the sweep of her silk as she turned and smiled A smile as pure as her pearls; The breeze was in love with the darling Child, And coaxed her curls.

She showed me her ferns and woodbine sprays, Foxglove and jasmine stars, A mist of blue in the beds, a blaze Of red in the celadon jars: And velvety bees in convolvulus bells, And roses of bountiful Spring.

But I said--”Though roses and bees have spells, They have thorn, and sting.”

She showed me ripe peaches behind a net As fine as her veil, and fat Goldfish a-gape, who lazily met For her crumbs--I grudged them that!

A squirrel, some rabbits with long lop ears, And guinea-pigs, tortoise-sh.e.l.l--wee; And I told her that eloquent truth inheres In all we see.

I lifted her doe by its lops, quoth I, ”Even here deep meaning lies,-- Why have squirrels these ample tails, and why Have rabbits these prominent eyes?”

She smiled and said, as she twirled her veil, ”For some nice little cause, no doubt-- If you lift a guinea-pig up by the tail His eyes drop out!”

Frederick Locker Lampson [1821-1895]

MRS. SMITH

Heigh-ho! they're wed. The cards are dealt, Our frolic games are o'er; I've laughed, and fooled, and loved. I've felt-- As I shall feel no more!

Yon little thatch is where she lives, Yon spire is where she met me;-- I think that if she quite forgives, She cannot quite forget me.