TO-DAY I've discovered a treasure Tied up with a ribbon of blue; That record of pain and of pleasure, A packet of old billets-doux. The note-paper, quite out of fashion, The date of ten summers ago, Recall the unreasoning passion Of juvenile rapture and woe. No face was so lovely as Minnie's, I praised it in prose and in verse; Her curls were like piles of new guineas -- Alas, she had none in her purse! I loved her for beauty and kindness, I grieved when I fancied her cold, But Cupid, quite cured of his blindness, Now takes a good aim at the gold. To fair Lady Flora, the heiress, I've offered my love and my life; Repenting of ancient vagaries, I'll settle to wealth and a wife. The heat of my boyhood is banished Alike from my heart and my head; The comet for ever has vanished, But fireworks will answer instead. I've kept all my ardent effusions, Appeal, protestation, and vow: I'm cured of my youthful delusions, And can't write such love-letters now. The thing was excessively silly, But then we were only eighteen, And she was all rose-bud and lily, And I was uncommonly green. I'm happy to say she was fickle, She blighted my love with a frown; It withered, ere Time with his sickle Could cut the first blossoming down. We parted -- how well I remember That gloomy yet fortunate day! It seemed like the ghost of December, Aroused by the frolics of May. I shook myself loose from her fetters -- (I did not express it so then); 'Twas well she returned me the letters, For now I can use them again. I am not afraid of detection, I cast all my scruples away; The embers of former affection Shall kindle the fire of to-day. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WINTER TREES by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS LYING IN THE GRASS by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE EXILED by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY THE BRIDE AND GROOM by WILLIAM EDWARD ADAMS A BRIDGE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN EMILE ZOLA by MARJORIE W. BRACHLOW OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 30 by THOMAS CAMPION |