Classic Poem

Happy the man in music nursed!
Toward Phaebus' Temple beckoned;
He lets some fair one sing the first,
And takes at sight the second.

Not mine that tuneful height to gain,
And yet, to stem disaster,
Methink I might, by care and pain,
Some few duettos master.

Kate, fair preceptress, taught me well,
By dint of toil, to bellow
A second to Mozart's " Crudel, "
And Mayer's " Vecchierello. "

Push'd on by her assiduous aid,
In strains not much like Banti,
Through " Con un Aria " next I strayed,
Composed by Fioravanti.

Thus taught my tuneful part to bear,
To Kate, assiduous girl,
In courtesy I sent a pair
Of ear-rings, deck'd with pearl.

My Mercury to Kate's abode
On agile pinions flew,
And fleetly by the self-same road
Brought back this billet-doux: —

" A boon like this, dear Sir, appears
The best you can bestow:
'Tis fit you decorate my ears —
You've bored them long ago. "