Classic Poem

T' OTHER day—'twas in summer's meridian—
 I, loving to fish and to dream,
Was wont to pay visits quotidian
 To Eden's miraculous stream.
With my meerschaum and good pocket flagon,
 Right merry the life that I led
By the river that Uther Pendragon
 Tried vainly to turn from its bed.

II

One charm had the river, that very
 Soon set my poor brain in a whirl;
I used to be rowed o'er the ferry
 By the prettiest possible girl.
Her face was a cluster of roses,
 The sweetest of buds was her mouth;
She'd the nicest of little Greek noses,
 And breath like a breeze from the south.

III

In vain did her neatly-made bodice
 The curve of her bosom disguise,
There was news of love's mischievous goddess
 In the blue of her timorous eyes.
I, not being very patrician,
 (Though I have got an uncle an Earl),
'Mid scenery and weather elysian,
 Fell in love with this buxom young girl.

IV

At last, half in earnest, half joking,
 I ask her if marry she will:
She drops me a curtsey provoking—
 ‘I'm engaged, sir, to Jack at the Mill!’
Confoundedly bothered and nettled,
 I leave by the very next train:
That girl shall be married and settled,
 Before I see Eden again.