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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  A Gage D’Amour

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Admiration

A Gage D’Amour

Austin Dobson (1840–1921)

  • “Martiis cælebs quid agam Kalendis,
  • ——— miraris?”
  • —Horace iii. 8.

  • CHARLES,—for it seems you wish to know,—

    You wonder what could scare me so,

    And why, in this long-locked bureau,

    With trembling fingers,—

    With tragic air, I now replace

    This ancient web of yellow lace,

    Among whose faded folds the trace

    Of perfume lingers.

    Friend of my youth, severe as true,

    I guess the train your thoughts pursue;

    But this my state is nowise due

    To indigestion;

    I had forgotten it was there,

    A scarf that Some-one used to wear.

    Hinc illæ lacrimæ,—so spare

    Your cynic questions.

    Some-one who is not girlish now,

    And wed long since. We meet and bow;

    I don’t suppose our broken vow

    Affects us keenly;

    Yet, trifling though my act appears,

    Your Sternes would make it ground for tears;—

    One can’t disturb the dust of years,

    And smile serenely.

    “My golden locks” are gray and chill,

    For hers,—let them be sacred still;

    But yet I own, a boyish thrill

    Went dancing through me,

    Charles, when I held yon yellow lace;

    For, from its dusty hiding-place,

    Peeped out an arch, ingenuous face

    That beckoned to me.

    We shut our heart up nowadays,

    Like some old music-box that plays

    Unfashionable airs that raise

    Derisive pity;

    Alas,—a nothing starts the spring;

    And lo, the sentimental thing

    At once commences quavering

    Its lover’s ditty.

    Laugh, if you like. The boy in me,—

    The boy that was,—revived to see

    The fresh young smile that shone when she,

    Of old, was tender.

    Once more we trod the Golden Way,—

    That mother you saw yesterday,

    And I, whom none can well portray

    As young, or slender.

    She twirled the flimsy scarf about

    Her pretty head, and stepping out,

    Slipped arm in mine, with half a pout

    Of childish pleasure.

    —Where we were bound no mortal knows,

    For then you plunged in Ireland’s woes,

    And brought me blankly back to prose

    And Gladstone’s measure.

    Well, well, the wisest bend to Fate.

    My brown old books around me wait,

    My pipe still holds, unconfiscate,

    Its wonted station.

    Pass me the wine. To Those that keep

    The bachelor’s secluded sleep

    Peaceful, inviolate, and deep,

    I pour libation.