What is printer's ink to me?
Commas, dots and dashes!
What is printer's ink to me,
If with Helen I may be,
Exclamation points to see

Underneath her lashes?

Gelett Burgess.

THE BUTTERFLY'S MADRIGAL

VE-for-a-day, come let's be gay!

LOVE

Love, for a day, thy lips are smiling!
Love-for-a-week, our bliss we'll seek,
Love, for a week, dull care beguiling!
Love-for-a-year, be true my dear!
Love, for a year-and then we'll sever;
Love for a day or year we may,

But Love for aye-ah, never!

Gelett Burgess.

BALLADE OF THE DEVIL-MAY-CARE

'REE as the wandering pike am I,

FR Many the strings to my amorous bow,

More than a little inclined to fly Butterfly lovering, to and fro;

Happy wherever the flowers blow,

With the dew on the leaf, and the sunshine above,

Terribly wrong and unprincipled? No,

Life is too short to be "dead in love!"

Not for me is the lover's sigh;
Fools are they to be worrying so!
Sipping my fill of the honey I fly
Butterfly lovering, to and fro.

I skim the cream, and let all else go;
Gather my roses, and give a shove
Over shoulder at dutiful woe,-
Life is too short to be "dead in love!"

my

So, while the fanciful hours go by,

I gayly reap what the simpletons sow. Fresh with their bloom are the fruits I try, Butterfly lovering, to and fro.

Then here's to the lady who wears her beau On and off, like a dainty glove!

And here's to the zephyrs that all-ways blow— Life is too short to be "dead in love!"

ENVOY

Prince, who cares for the coming snow,
Butterfly lovering to and fro?

Why should a man be a turtle-dove?
Life is too short to be "dead in love!"

Gelett Burgess.

BALLADE OF DREAMS TRANSPOSED

OME like to be shut in a cage,

SOM

may

Cooped in a corner, a-tippling tea,
Some may in troublesome toil engage;
But the luck of a rover's the thing for me!
Over the mountain and over the sea,
Now in the country and now in the town,

And when I'm wrinkled and withered, maybe, Then I'll marry and settle down.

Some may pore over printed page

And never know bird, nor beast, nor tree,
Watching the world from book or stage;

But the luck of a rover's the thing for me!
So ho! for the forest, and ho! for the lea,
And ho! for the river and prairie brown,
And ho! for a gay long jubilee,-
Then I'll marry and settle down.

Why should I wait till a gray old age
Brings me chance to be rich and free?
I have no money-it makes me rage;

But the luck of a rover's the thing for me!
Though oft, with my lover upon my knee
(She has frolicsome eyes and a fetching gown!)
I fear if my heart's to be held in fee,-
Then I'll marry and settle down.

ENVOY

Prince, my sweetheart will not agree,-
But the luck of a rover's the thing for me!
She says
I must stay, and I fear her frown,—
Then I'll marry and settle down.

Gelett Burgess.

VILLANELLE OF HIS LADY'S TREASURE

TOOK her dainty eyes, as well
As silken tendrils of her hair:
And so I made a Villanelle!

I took her voice, a silver bell,

As clear as song, as soft as prayer;
I took her dainty eyes as well.

It may be, said I, who can tell,

These things shall be my less despair?
And so I made a Villanelle!

I took her whiteness virginal

And from her cheek two roses rare:

I took her dainty eyes as well.

I said: "It may be possible

Her image from my heart to tear!"
And so I made a Villanelle.

I stole her laugh, most musical:
I wrought it in with artful care;
I took her dainty eyes as well;
And so I made a Villanelle.

Ernest Dowson.

G

L'ENVOI

O, pretty Rose, and to her tell

All I would say, could I but see The slender form I know so well, The roguish eyes that laughed at me.

And when your fragrance fills the room,
Tell her of all I hope and fear;
With every breath of sweet perfume,
Whisper my greetings in her ear.

But, Roses, stay-there is one thing
You must not mention (don't forget,
For it might be embarrassing),
And that is, you're not paid for yet!

É. B. Reed.