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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  How to Ask and Have

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

How to Ask and Have

By Samuel Lover (1797–1868)

“OH, ’tis time I should talk to your mother,

Sweet Mary,” says I.

“Oh, don’t talk to my mother,” says Mary,

Beginning to cry:

“For my mother says men are deceivers,

And never, I know, will consent;

She says girls in a hurry who marry

At leisure repent.”

“Then suppose I would talk to your father,

Sweet Mary,” says I.

“Oh, don’t talk to my father,” says Mary,

Beginning to cry:

“For my father, he loves me so dearly,

He’ll never consent I should go—

If you talk to my father,” says Mary,

“He’ll surely say ‘No.’”

“Then how shall I get you, my jewel?

Sweet Mary,” says I:

“If your father and mother’s so cruel,

Most surely I’ll die!”

“Oh, never say die, dear,” says Mary;

“A way now to save you I see:

Since my parents are both so contrary—

You’d better ask me.”