I'm in love with neighbor Nelly, Though I know she's only ten, While, alas! I'm eighty-and-forty And the @3marriedest@1 of men! I've a wife who weights me double, I've three daughters all with @3beaux@1: I've a son with noble whiskers, Who at me turns up his nose. Though a square-toes, and a fogey, Still I've sunshine in my heart; Still I'm fond of cakes and marbles, Can appreciate a tart. I can love my neighbor Nelly Just as though I were a boy: I could hand her nuts and apples From my depths of corduroy. She is tall, and growing taller, She is vigorous of limb; (You should see her play at cricket, With her little brother Jim.) She has eyes as blue as damsons, She has pounds of auburn curls, She regrets the game of leap-frog Is prohibited to girls. I adore my neighbor Nelly, I invite her in to tea; And I let her nurse the baby, -- And all her pretty ways to see. Such a darling bud of woman, Yet remote from any teens, -- I have learnt from neighbor Nelly What the girl's doll-instinct means. O, to see her with the baby! He adores her more than I, -- How she choruses his crowing, -- How she hushes every cry! How she loves to pit his dimples With her light forefinger deep! How she boasts to me in triumph When she's got him off the sleep! We must part, my neighbor Nelly, For the summers quickly flee; And your middle-aged admirer Must supplanted quickly be. Yet as jealous as a mother, -- A distempered, cankered churl, I look vainly for the setting To be worthy such a pearl. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE ROAD TO CHORRERA by ARLO BATES PHILIP, MY KING by DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK INDIAN SUMMER by EMILY DICKINSON A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY by JOHN DRYDEN SONNET: TO DANTE by GUIDO CAVALCANTI SEVEN TIMES SIX [ - GIVING IN MARRIAGE] by JEAN INGELOW THE BRONCHO THAT WOULD NOT BE BROKEN by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY |