A Summer Christmas and a Sonnet upon The S.S. "Ballaarat." By Douglas B. W. Sladen |
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 | A Summer Christmas and a Sonnet upon The S.S. "Ballaarat." |  |
Now mark the wit of womankind,
And learn that love is not so blind
As poets picture him to be,
For when Lil sought her bedroom she,
While still the gentlemen sat to
Their glass of water—and Lochdhu,
Called in her mother and confessed,
Entreating her to do her best
To win her father to her choice,
Pleading with that sweet gentle voice
Which won all hearers to her part.
Now Helen had a tender heart,
And her ten yearning years of troth
Tended to make her very loath
Her children's longings to postpone
A single month: and Lil was one
To give her much anxiety.
She was so pretty and so free
From guile as well as self-restraint,
And he would have to be a saint
Who scorned her gentle glowing charms
And shrank from her extended arms.
And learn that love is not so blind
As poets picture him to be,
For when Lil sought her bedroom she,
While still the gentlemen sat to
Their glass of water—and Lochdhu,
Called in her mother and confessed,
Entreating her to do her best
To win her father to her choice,
Pleading with that sweet gentle voice
Which won all hearers to her part.
Now Helen had a tender heart,
And her ten yearning years of troth
Tended to make her very loath
Her children's longings to postpone
A single month: and Lil was one
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She was so pretty and so free
From guile as well as self-restraint,
And he would have to be a saint
Who scorned her gentle glowing charms
And shrank from her extended arms.
She had been wooed three times before,
And each time thrown the wooer o'er
With much reluctance—souls of make
Like hers love Love for its own sake.
Her other lovers had been men
As much drawn by the hope of gain
In marrying the squatter's child
As by the face which on them smiled;
But the Professor had a clear
Six or eight hundred pounds a year
Of salary, e'en suppose he had
No penny of his own to add,
A sum with which as bachelor
He certainly could do much more,
Than married with as much again.
That he was capable was plain
From his appointment: and his mind
Seemed honourable, broad, and kind:
He was nice-looking in the face,
And gentlemanly in his ways,
And ‘Chesterfield’ had said that he
Came of a good old family.
Then Lily seemed so fond of him,
And, if it was no passing whim
But an absorbing love . . . . . . . (and she
Owned to a sensibility
Herself of the Professor's charm).
Nor was Lil kept in long alarm,
For, when her father came to bed,
The mother for the daughter pled
So winningly that his consent
Was granted her incontinent,
Subject to conversation due
Upon the morrow with the two.
Kind Helen, far too kind to keep
A darling daughter from her sleep
With doubt and trembling on a theme
So near her heart as this would seem,
Stole to her bedroom on tip-toe,
Her prayer's success to let her know.
And each time thrown the wooer o'er
With much reluctance—souls of make
Like hers love Love for its own sake.
Her other lovers had been men
As much drawn by the hope of gain
In marrying the squatter's child
As by the face which on them smiled;
But the Professor had a clear
Six or eight hundred pounds a year
Of salary, e'en suppose he had
No penny of his own to add,
A sum with which as bachelor
He certainly could do much more,
Than married with as much again.
That he was capable was plain
From his appointment: and his mind
Seemed honourable, broad, and kind:
He was nice-looking in the face,
And gentlemanly in his ways,
And ‘Chesterfield’ had said that he
Came of a good old family.
Then Lily seemed so fond of him,
And, if it was no passing whim
But an absorbing love . . . . . . . (and she
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Herself of the Professor's charm).
Nor was Lil kept in long alarm,
For, when her father came to bed,
The mother for the daughter pled
So winningly that his consent
Was granted her incontinent,
Subject to conversation due
Upon the morrow with the two.
Kind Helen, far too kind to keep
A darling daughter from her sleep
With doubt and trembling on a theme
So near her heart as this would seem,
Stole to her bedroom on tip-toe,
Her prayer's success to let her know.
| A Summer Christmas and a Sonnet upon The S.S. "Ballaarat." | |