A MIDDLE-AGED LYRICAL POET IS SUPPOSED TO BE TAKING LEAVE OF THE MUSE OF COMEDY I SAY it under the rose -- Oh, thanks! -- yes, under the laurel, We part lovers, not foes; We are not going to quarrel. We have too long been friends On foot and in gilded coaches, Now that the whole thing ends, To spoil our kiss with reproaches. I leave you; my soul is wrung; I pause, look back from the portal -- Ah, I no more am young, And you, child, you are immortal! Mine is the glacier's way, Yours is the blossom's weather -- When were December and May Known to be happy together? Before my kisses grow tame, Before my moodiness grieve you, While yet my heart is flame, And I all lover, I leave you. So, in the coming time, When you count the rich years over, Think of me in my prime, And not as a white-haired lover, Fretful, pierced with regret, The wraith of a dead Desire, Thrumming a cracked spinet By a slowly dying fire. When, at last, I am cold -- Years hence, if the gods so will it -- Say, "He was true as gold," And wear a rose in your fillet! Others, tender as I, Will come and sue for caresses, Woo you, win you, and die -- Mind you, a rose in your tresses! Some Melpomene woo, Some hold Clio the nearest; You, sweet Comedy, -- you Were ever sweetest and dearest! Nay, it is time to go. When writing your tragic sister Say to that child of woe How sorry I was I missed her. Really, I cannot stay, Though "parting is such sweet sorrow"... Perhaps I will, on my way Down-town, look in to-morrow! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF SLAVES IN THE DESERT by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER L'EAU DORMANTE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH NELL COOK; A LEGEND OF THE 'DARK ENTRY': THE KING'S SCHOLAR'S STORY by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM SS. SIMON & JUDE by JOSEPH BEAUMONT INSPIRATION by GRACE HOLBROOK BLOOD A RAILROAD YARD AT NIGHT by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |