Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Fuess and Stearns, comps. The Little Book of Society Verse. 1922.

By. Frederick Locker-Lampson

Mrs. Smith

Heigh-ho! they’re wed. The cards are dealt,

Our frolic games are o’er;

I’ve laughed, and fool’d, and lov’d. I’ve felt—

As I shall feel no more!

Yon little thatch is where she lives,

Yon spire is where she met me;—

I think that if she quite forgives,

She cannot quite forget me.

Last year I trod these fields with Di,

Fields fresh with clover and with rye;

Now they seem arid.

Then Di was fair and single; how

Unfair it seems on me, for now

Di’s fair—and married!

A blissful swain—I scorn’d the song

Which says that though young Love is strong.

The Fates are stronger:

Breezes then blew a boon to men,

The buttercups were bright, and then

This grass was longer.

That day I saw and much esteem’d

Di’s ankles, which the clover seem’d

Inclined to smother:

It twitch’d, and soon untied (for fun)

The ribbon of her shoes, first one,

And then the other.

I’m told that virgins augur some

Misfortune if their shoe-strings come

To grief on Friday:

And so did Di, and then her pride

Decreed that shoe-strings so untied

Are “so untidy!”

Of course I knelt; with fingers deft

I tied the right, and tied the left:

Says Di, “The stubble

Is very stupid!—as I live

I’m quite ashamed!… I’m shock’d to give

You so much trouble!”

For answer I was fain to sink

To what we all would say and think

Were Beauty present:

“Don’t mention such a simple act—

A trouble? Not the least! In fact

It’s rather pleasant!”

I trust that Love will never tease

Poor little Di, or prove that he’s

A graceless rover.

She’s happy now as Mrs. Smith—

And less polite when walking with

Her chosen lover!

Heigh-ho! Although no moral clings

To Di’s blue eyes, and sandal strings,

We’ve had our quarrels.

I think that Smith is thought an ass,—

I know that when they walk in grass

She wears balmorals.