 | Quo Musa Tendis? |  |
15
A Joke.
You cannot, will not, never could;
Of course I knew it, what's the good?
I know you, you know me, and then
You know so many other men:
You like them all, you like me too;
And most of them in love with you!
Of course I knew it, what's the good?
I know you, you know me, and then
You know so many other men:
You like them all, you like me too;
And most of them in love with you!
But if it had been otherwise:
If I had happened, in your eyes,
To be what other men have been
In other people's eyes, my queen:
Why then, why then,—confound it all,
The world's abominably small!
I mean the world of sense and feeling;
A truism there's no concealing.
If I had happened, in your eyes,
To be what other men have been
In other people's eyes, my queen:
Why then, why then,—confound it all,
The world's abominably small!
I mean the world of sense and feeling;
A truism there's no concealing.
You're smiling: as you smiled before,
While I was asking you for more
Than you could give me, when I chanced
To drop a jest, how quick you glanced!
You seemed to say that love (we use
The word; how not?) would scarcely choose
Such phrases as we jesters store,
To “set the table in a roar.”
While I was asking you for more
Than you could give me, when I chanced
To drop a jest, how quick you glanced!
You seemed to say that love (we use
The word; how not?) would scarcely choose
Such phrases as we jesters store,
To “set the table in a roar.”
16
Ah! if you'd wanted words red hot,
You might have had them; you did not,
It's hardly decent, I opine,
To prate of beautiful, divine,
Describe one's amorous symptoms, gloat
On eyes, and hands, and hair, and throat,
And magnify one's lady's charms,
Like Troubadour or knight at arms,
Unless one has the luck to know
That she would rather have it so.
Faint heart—I know: I'm not the man
To do it, though my betters can,
Suffice it all the words are there
To thrill the circumambient air,
The moment I'm allowed: meanwhile
Why not encourage you to smile:
Relieve the tedium of a scene
You're used to? since I do not mean
To veil my eyes or bow my head,
Or weep, or wish that I were dead,
Or fail to fight the fight of life,
As keenly as were you my wife.
You're smiling still: you don't believe
A hopeless lover would not grieve;
A grieving lover would not show
Some outward token of his woe:
I'm joking, am I? be it so.
You might have had them; you did not,
It's hardly decent, I opine,
To prate of beautiful, divine,
Describe one's amorous symptoms, gloat
On eyes, and hands, and hair, and throat,
And magnify one's lady's charms,
Like Troubadour or knight at arms,
Unless one has the luck to know
That she would rather have it so.
Faint heart—I know: I'm not the man
To do it, though my betters can,
Suffice it all the words are there
To thrill the circumambient air,
The moment I'm allowed: meanwhile
Why not encourage you to smile:
Relieve the tedium of a scene
You're used to? since I do not mean
To veil my eyes or bow my head,
Or weep, or wish that I were dead,
Or fail to fight the fight of life,
As keenly as were you my wife.
You're smiling still: you don't believe
A hopeless lover would not grieve;
A grieving lover would not show
Some outward token of his woe:
I'm joking, am I? be it so.
| Quo Musa Tendis? | |