Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

When I was a school-boy, aged ten,
Oh, mighty little Greek I knew;
With my short strip'd trowsers, and now and then
With stripes upon my jacket too!
When I saw other boys to the play-ground run,
I threw my old Gradus by,
And I left the task I had scarce begun,
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

II

When I was at college, my pride was dress,
And my groom and my bit of blood;
But as for my study, I must confess,
That I was content with my stud.
I was deep in my Tradesmen's books, I'm afraid,
Tho' not in my own by the bye;
And when rascally tailors came to be paid,
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

III

I was just nineteen when I first fell in love,
And I scribbled a deal of rhyme;
And I talk'd to myself in a shady grove,
And I thought I was quite sublime;

224

I was torn from my love! 'twas a dreadful blow,
And the lady she wip'd her eye;
But I didn't die of grief, oh, dear me, no!
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

IV

The next was a lady of rank, a dame
With blood in her veins you see;
With the leaves of the Peerage, she fann'd the flame
That was now consuming me.
But tho' of her great descent she spoke,
I found she was still very high,
And I thought looking up to a wife no joke,
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

V

My next penchant was for one whose face
Was her fortune, she was so fair!
Oh, she spoke with an air of enchanting grace,
But a man cannot live upon air;
And when poverty enters the door, young love
Will out of the casement fly;
The truth of the proverb I'd no wish to prove,
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

VI

My next was a lady who loved romance,
And wrote very splendid things;
And she said with a sneer, when I ask'd her to dance,
“Sir, I ride upon a horse with wings.”
There was ink on her thumb when I kissed her hand,
And she whisper'd “If you should die,
I will write you an epitaph, gloomy, and grand,”
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

VII

I left her, and sported my figure and face,
At opera, party, and ball;
I met pretty girls at ev'ry place,
But I found a defect in all!

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The first did not suit me, I cannot tell how,
The second I cannot say why;
And the third, bless me, I will not marry now,
There'll be time enough for that, said I.

VIII

I look'd in the glass, and I thought I could trace
A sort of a wrinkle or two;
So I made up my mind, that I'd make up my face,
And come out as good as new.
To my hair I imparted a little more jet,
And I scarce could suppress a sigh;
But I cannot be quite an old Bachelor yet—
No, there's time enough for that, said I.

IX

I was now fifty one, yet I still did adopt
All the airs of a juvenile beau;
But, somehow, whenever a question I popp'd,
The girls with a laugh said “No!”
I am sixty to-day, not a very young man,
And a bachelor doom'd to die;
So youths be advised, and marry while you can,
There's no time to be lost, say I.