Part 43 (2/2)

I sing a pensive roundelay To sweethearts of a doubtful lot, The pa.s.sions vanished in a day-- The little loves that I've forgot.

For, as the happy years have sped, And golden dreams have changed to gray, How oft the flame of love was fed By glance, or smile, from Maud or May, When wayward Cupid was at play; Mere fancies, formed of who knows what, But still my debt I ne'er can pay-- The little loves that I've forgot.

O joyous hours forever fled!

O sudden hopes that would not stay!

Held only by the slender thread Of memory that's all astray.

Their very names I cannot say.

Time's will is done, I know them not; But blessings on them all, I pray-- The little loves that I've forgot.

|envoi|

Sweetheart, why foolish fears betray?

Ours is the one true lovers' knot; Note well the burden of my lay-- The little loves that I've forgot.

_Arthur Grissom._

IV

SATIRE

A BALLADE OF SUICIDE

The gallows in my garden, people say, Is new and neat and adequately tall.

I tie the noose on in a knowing way As one that knots his necktie for a ball; But just as all the neighbours--on the wall-- Are drawing a long breath to shout ”Hurray!”

The strangest whim has seized me.... After all I think I will not hang myself to-day.

To-morrow is the time I get my pay-- My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall-- I see a little cloud all pink and grey-- Perhaps the rector's mother will _not_ call-- I fancy that I heard from Mr. Gall That mushrooms could be cooked another way-- I never read the works of Juvenal-- I think I will not hang myself to-day.

The world will have another was.h.i.+ng day; The decadents decay; the pedants pall; And H. G. Wells has found that children play, And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall; Rationalists are growing rational-- And through thick woods one finds a stream astray, So secret that the very sky seems small-- I think I will not hang myself to-day.

|Envoi|

Prince, I can hear the trump of Germinal, The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way; Even to-day your royal head may fall-- I think I will not hang myself to-day.

_G. K. Chesterton._

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