Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A FAREWELL, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A FAREWELL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Good-bye, little maid
Last Line: You're too old for my knee!
Subject(s): Aging; Temptation


GOOD-BYE, little maid,
You're too old for my knee!
You are dressed in a frock 'tis a torture to see;
And the skirt has invaded
The hose that concealed
The limbs that went twinkling
From forest to field.
But a week, and I saw a quick flash of your knee
As you jumped at the brook
In a moment of daring,
Unworried by caring
For sudden concealment
Of virgin revealment.
And now, in a dress 'tis a torture to see,
You will learn how to sink
From the sky to the earth
(Losing stars), and to think
Custom better than worth,
And slowly bewilder the angel
Devoted to you from your birth.
Already you hear the Society sheep
As they jump one by one through the decorous holes,
Thinking more of their wool than they think of their souls.
In a year you will blush
If I speak of your rush
At the brook and the fence,
And with tutored pretence
Talk the tattle that grows at an afternoon tea.
Yet only last week you were begging to be
In a damson, for loot!
And, afar in the green,
Brightly golden, was seen
The head that I loved so, the fairest of fruit!
No more shall I follow, no more shall you flee,
For now, in a dress 'tis a torture to see,
You who were yesterday
Wild as a finch
They gird and be-pinch.
Farewell to the days when your tresses were free—
Good-bye, little maid,
You're too old for my knee!





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