Fuess and Stearns, comps. The Little Book of Society Verse. 1922.
By. Owen SeamanComing out
J
And the night of delight will be here;
So ply me your very best pinions, I pray,
Wednesday, dear!
Have arrived (beyond rational doubt)
“Unto years of discretion,” and that’s why I’m just
Coming out.
That I’m one with the World and his Wife;
And may join, if I choose, in the popular game
Known as Life.
To announce that I ’ve come on the scene,
And that men for the future must say nothing more
Than they mean.
Suggesting a fugitive dove;
And, I’m happy to say, it embraces me quite
Like a glove.
While I try to look careless and bland,
Like a hair-dresser’s doll pirouetting away
On a stand.
From a gallant anonymous swain,
Whose ingenuous blushes will render his guile
Very vain.
And the couples that charge and chase;
And the men who convey you about like a big
Double-bass.
All the lovely night through up to five;
Till the danc’d and the dancers are rather more dead
Than alive.
Of the dresses and who wore what;
Of the men who were perfect to dance with, and those
Who were not.
My programme and gravely reflect
That I’ve danced with one partner more frequently than
Was correct.
With a stiffness and something of pique,
To think that one cannot come out in this way
Once a week.
And I sha’n’t be a child any more;
Only sadder and wiser by ever so much
Than before.