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Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

An Untimely Thought

By Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907)

I WONDER what day of the week—

I wonder what month of the year—

Will it be midnight, or morning,

And who will bend over my bier?

—What a hideous fancy to come

As I wait, at the foot of the stair,

While Lilian gives the last touch

To her robe, or the rose in her hair.

Do I like your new dress—pompadour?

And do I like you? On my life,

You are eighteen, and not a day more,

And have not been six years my wife.

Those two rosy boys in the crib

Up-stairs are not ours, to be sure!—

You are just a sweet bride in her bloom,

All sunshine, and snowy, and pure.

As the carriage rolls down the dark street

The little wife laughs and makes cheer—

But … I wonder what day of the week,

I wonder what month of the year.