I don't encourage idle dreams Just foaming from the cow; I'm not a lover now! When Laura sings young hearts away, I'm deafer than the deep; When Leonora goes to play, I sometimes go to sleep; When Mary draws her white gloves out, I never dance, I vow Too hot to kick one's heels about!— I'm not a lover now! I'm busy with the State affairs, I ask the price of railroad shares, I save a fortune in perfumes I'm not a lover now! I may be yet what others are, The flattered star of bench and bar, Come shower or sunshine-hope or fear, The palace or the plough, My heart and lute are broken here— I'm not a lover now! Lady, the mist is on my sight, The chill is on my brow, My day is night, my bloom is blight, 8 SCHOOL AND SCHOOL-FELLOWS. TWELVE years ago I made a mock I wondered what they meant by stock; I knew the streets of Rome and Troy, Twelve years ago I was a boy, Twelve years ago!-how many a thought The fields, the forms, the beasts, the books, The voices of dear friends, the looks Where are my friends ?—I am alone, And some compose a tragedy, And some compose a rondo; And some draw sword for liberty, And some draw pleas for John Doe. Tom Mill was used to blacken eyes, A magistrate pedantic; And Medler's feet repose unscann'd, Beneath the wide Atlantic. Wild Nick, whose oaths made such a din, Does Dr. Martext's duty; And Mullion, with that monstrous chin, Is married to a beauty; And Darrel studies, week by week, And Ball, who was but poor at Greek, And I am eight-and-twenty now The world's cold chain has bound me; And darker shades are on my brow, And sadder scenes around me: In Parliament I fill my seat, With many other noodles; And lay my head in Germyn-street, But often when the cares of life Have set my temples aching, When Captain Hazard wins a bet, For hours and hours, I think and talk I wish that I could run away From house and court, and levee, Where bearded men appear to-day, Just Eton boys, grown heavy; That I could bask in childhood's sun, And call the milk-maids Houris; That I could be a boy again A happy boy at Drury's! |