Part 39 (2/2)
She flung the parlour window wide One eve of mid-July, And he, as fate would have it tide, That moment sauntered by.
His eyes were blue and hers were brown, With drooping fringe of jet; And he looked up as she looked down, And so their glances met.
_Things as strange, I dare to say, Happen somewhere every day._
A mile beyond the straggling street, A quiet pathway goes; And lovers here are wont to meet, As all the country knows.
Now she one night at half-past eight Had sought that lonely lane, When _he_ came up, by will of fate, And so they met again.
_Things as strange, I dare to say, Happen somewhere every day._
The parish church, so old and gray, Is quite a sight to see; And he was there at ten one day, And so, it chanced, was she.
And while they stood, with cheeks aflame, And neighbours liked the fun, In stole and hood the parson came, And made the couple one.
_Things as strange, I dare to say, Happen somewhere every day._
_Frederick Langbridge._
THE NUN
SUGGESTED BY PART OF THE ITALIAN SONG, BEGINNING ”SE MONECA TI FAI.”
I
If you become a nun, dear, A friar I will be; In any cell you run, dear, Pray look behind for me.
The roses all turn pale, too; The doves all take the veil, too; The blind will see the show: What! you become a nun, my dear!
I'll not believe it, no.
II
If you become a nun, dear, The bishop Love will be; The Cupids every one, dear, Will chaunt ”We trust in thee”; The incense will go sighing, The candles fall a dying, The water turn to wine: What! you go take the vows, my dear!
You may--but they'll be mine.
_Leigh Hunt._
THE CHEMIST TO HIS LOVE
I love thee, Mary, and thou lovest me-- Our mutual flame is like th' affinity That doth exist between two simple bodies: I am Pota.s.sium to thine Oxygen.
'Tis little that the holy marriage vow Shall shortly make us one. That unity Is, after all, but metaphysical.
Oh, would that I, my Mary, were an acid, A living acid; thou an alkali Endow'd with human sense, that, brought together, We both might coalesce into one salt, One h.o.m.ogeneous crystal. Oh, that thou Wert Carbon, and myself were Hydrogen; We would unite to form olefiant gas, Or common coal, or naphtha--would to heaven That I were Phosphorus, and thou wert Lime!
And we of Lime composed a Phosphuret.
I'd be content to be Sulphuric Acid, So that thou might be Soda. In that case We should be Glauber's Salt. Wert thou Magnesia Instead we'd form the salt that's named from Epsom.
Couldst thou Pota.s.sa be, I Aqua-fortis, Our happy union should that compound form, Nitrate of Potash--otherwise Saltpetre.
And thus our several natures sweetly blent, We'd live and love together, until death Should decompose the fleshly _tertium quid_, Leaving our souls to all eternity Amalgamated. Sweet, thy name is Briggs And mine is Johnson. Wherefore should not we Agree to form a Johnsonate of Briggs?
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