University of Virginia Library

THE SERENADER.

FIRST VERSION.

Out at a window looked a lady fair,
Set, like a miniature, sweet within the frame,
And upward gazed a youth with heart a-flame,
Who laughing said, “To-night I will prepare
A serenade to soften all the air,
And shafts of singing at that casement aim;”
The night wore on, the lover never came,
For pouting lips had answered, “If you dare!”
But O, sweet lady, he has done it still,
He could not help it, please his fault condone,
He could not find a lyre of silver tone
Enough to satisfy his searching will
That autumn, therefore has he sought to fill
Two volumes with the serenader's moan!

THE SERENADER.

SECOND VERSION.

Out at a window looked a lady sweet,
And smiled towards an admiring youth below,
Who answered, “Gracious Madam, I shall go
And buy a harp whose strings by finger fleet
Swept cunningly may move a melody meet
Towards that casement and its hand of snow,”
Came quickly wafted down a laughing “No,”
Silent of serenading was the street.
But—the forbidden song is here instead,
Filling two volumes with a swell of sound,
For what are all my poems choicely bound
But a flowery Serenade whose petals shed
Their perfume round about your sleeping head,
Filling the window, covering the ground?