A PLAIN ANSWER (TO A CIVIL QUESTION.) BRIGHT RIGHT creature of impulse, you bid me be gay. I would gladly adopt the suggestion, But candour compels me sincerely to say That I don't like the tone of your ques tion. In a voice that recalls the soft murmur of bees, And in syllables sweet as their honey, You say "Mamma wishes to know, if you please, To-night, giddy child, when I enter'd the room A hope that the wine-cup and dance might illume hi na kuga of which Time has bereft me. Yes, the day may arrive the fall see me content I will try to begin to be funny! IN A HUNDRED YEARS. AN extra smile or a burst of tears— A fine to-day or a dull to-morrow A taste more joy or a drop more sorrowAll the same in a hundred years. A thousand hopes or a thousand fears— A lifetime sad or a lifetime wasted- If things were thus, as one often hears, I'd seize the pleasure, I'd leave the sorrowEnjoy to-day and defy to-morrow All the same in a hundred years. EVENING. E birds, beneath your little wings For oh! the pleasantest of things Shine on above the chimney-pots, O placid Evening Star : While gazing at you à la WATTS, You rose on Eden, happy place! And still your smiles relieve The woes and wants of ADAM's race, The nightingales are all about Their song is everywhere Their notes are lovely (though they're out So often in the air), The zephyr, dancing through the tops Of ash and poplar, weaves Low melodies, and scarcely stops To murmur," By your leaves !" Night steeps the passions of the day Kicks up a shine above. Oh, I could bless the hour that brings Unless I had a lot of things To polish off to-night. |