Classic Poem

THE IVORY FAN

I.

" Buy me that ivory fan, " said she,
" So daintily carved and white.
In all Bond Street, there's nothing so sweet,
I love it from morn till night
I gaze all day at that lovely fan,
Fair in the window wide;
Buy me the fan, love, if you can,
And I shall be satisfied. "

II.

" You never were satisfied yet, " said I
" I bought you a bracelet, dear,
And a brooch of jet, and a green aigrette,
Just at the close of the year.
A sealskin jacket, a rosewood bracket,
A parrot from Ispahan,
An opera cloak, and a stand of oak,
And now you are wild for a fan!

III.

So we quarrelled. 'I was just a year ago,
And where is the voice to-day
That said, " If you can, give me the fan " ?
Hushed, and taken away.
She halts no more at the fan-shop door,
She needs no gifts from man,
And I say to myself with a sad strange smile,
" I wish she had had her fan! "