Poetical works of the late F. Sayers to which have been prefixed the connected disquisitions on the rise and progress of English poetry, and on English metres, and also some biographic particulars of the author, supplied by W. Taylor |
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LINES ADDRESSED TO MISS D.
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 | Poetical works of the late F. Sayers |  |
265
LINES ADDRESSED TO MISS D.
ON RETURNING TO HER, THROUGH DR. S., A PUZZLE OF BEADS.
Pray, lady fair, for what ill deedsAm I thus doom'd to tell my beads?
To fix the glittering baubles right,
I labour morning, noon, and night;
I twist them round and round again,
But all my twirlings are in vain,
For, whether I unloose or bind them,
Still where they should not be, I find them.
Surely some dark and awful spell
Within the slender knot must dwell,
And witching fingers twin'd a noose,
Which none but conjurors can unloose.
And yet 't is hard that I, who read
The works of venerable Bede,
That I, who bit by ancient lore,
O'er musty bead-rolls daily pore,
And live in bonds of friendship true,
With many a good old beadsman too;
'T is hard that I, when fairly pitted,
By these small beads should be outwitted.
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As to the charm I ne'er shall guess it;
Finding, alas! 't is vain to try,
To loosen bonds that ladies tie.
No more I'll sorrowing rack my brain,
But send the mischief back again,
For why thus sadder grow and sadder,
'Bout three blue beads in one blue bladder.
| Poetical works of the late F. Sayers | |