Phantasmagoria and Other Poems

AY, 'twas here, on this spot,In that summer of yore,Atalanta did notVote my presence a bore,Nor reply to my tenderest talk "She hadheard all that nonsense before."She'd the brooch I had boughtAnd the necklace and sash on,And her heart, as I thought,

Was alive to my passion;And she'd done up her hair in the style thatthe Empress had brought into fashion.I had been to the playWith my pearl of a Peri –But, for all I could say,She declared she was weary,That "the place was so crowded and hot, andshe couldn't abide that Dundreary."Then I thought "Lucky boy!

'Tis for YOU that she whimpers!"And I noted with joyThose sensational simpers:And I said "This is scrumptious!" – aphrase I had learned from the Devonshire shrimpers.And I vowed "'Twill be saidI'm a fortunate fellow,When the breakfast is spread,When the topers are mellow,

When the foam of the bride-cake is white,and the fierce orange-blossoms are yellow!"O that languishing yawn!O those eloquent eyes!I was drunk with the dawnOf a splendid surmise –I was stung by a look, I was slain by a tear,by a tempest of sighs.Then I whispered "I seeThe sweet secret thou keepest.

And the yearning for METhat thou wistfully weepest!And the question is 'License or Banns?',though undoubtedly Banns are the cheapest.""Be my Hero," said I,"And let ME be Leander!"But I lost her reply –Something ending with "gander" –For the omnibus rattled so loud that nomortal could quite understand her.

The Lang Coortin'