The Home Book of Verse Volume Iv Part 18

Let it be as it may, Rose kissed me to-day But the pleasure gives way To a savor of sorrow;-- Rose kissed me to-day,-- Will she kiss me to-morrow?

Austin Dobson [1840-1921]

BIFTEK AUX CHAMPIGNONS

Mimi, do you remember-- Don't get behind your fan-- That morning in September On the cliffs of Grand Manan, Where to the shock of Fundy The topmost harebells sway (Campanula rotundi- folia: cf. Gray)?

On the pastures high and level, That overlook the sea, Where I wondered what the devil Those little things could be That Mimi stooped to gather, As she strolled across the down, And held her dress skirt rather-- Oh, now, you need n't frown.

For you know the dew was heavy, And your boots, I know, were thin; So a little extra brevi- ty in skirts was, sure, no sin.

Besides, who minds a cousin?

First, second, even third,-- I've kissed 'em by the dozen, And they never once demurred.

"If one's allowed to ask it,"

Quoth I, " ma belle cousine, What have you in your basket?"

(Those baskets white and green The brave Pa.s.samaquoddies Weave out of scented gra.s.s, And sell to tourist bodies Who through Mt. Desert pa.s.s.)

You answered, slightly frowning, "Put down your stupid book-- That everlasting Browning!-- And come and help me look.

Mushroom you spik him English, I call him champignon: I'll teach you to distinguish The right kind from the wrong."

There was no fog on Fundy That blue September day; The west wind, for that one day, Had swept it all away.

The lighthouse gla.s.ses twinkled, The white gulls screamed and flew, The merry sheep-bells tinkled, The merry breezes blew.

The bayberry aromatic, The papery immortelle, (That give our grandma's attic That sentimental smell, Tied up in little brush-brooms) Were sweet as new-mown hay, While we went hunting mushrooms That blue September day.

Henry Augustin Beers [1847-1926]

EVOLUTION

When you were a Tadpole and I was a Fish, In the Paleozoic time, And side by side on the ebbing tide, We sprawled through the ooze and slime, Or skittered with many a caudal flip Through the depths of the Cambrian fen-- My heart was rife with the joy of life, For I loved you even then.

Mindless we lived, mindless we loved, And mindless at last we died; And deep in the rift of a Caradoc drift We slumbered side by side.

The world turned on in the lathe of time, The hot sands heaved amain, Till we caught our breath from the womb of death, And crept into life again.

We were Amphibians, scaled and tailed, And drab as a dead man's hand.

We coiled at ease 'neath the dripping trees Or trailed through the mud and sand, Croaking and blind, with our three-clawed feet, Writing a language dumb, With never a spark in the empty dark To hint at a life to come.

Yet happy we lived, and happy we loved, And happy we died once more.

Our forms were rolled in the clinging mold Of a Neocomian sh.o.r.e.

The aeons came and the aeons fled, And the sleep that wrapped us fast Was riven away in a newer day, And the night of death was past.

Then light and swift through the jungle trees We swung in our airy flights, Or breathed the balms of the fronded palms In the hush of the moonless nights.

And oh, what beautiful years were these When our hearts clung each to each; When life was filled and our senses thrilled In the first faint dawn of speech!

Thus life by life, and love by love, We pa.s.sed through the cycles strange, And breath by breath, and death by death, We followed the chain of change.

Till there came a time in the law of life When over the nursing sod The shadows broke, and the soul awoke In a strange, dim dream of G.o.d.

I was thewed like an Aurocks bull And tusked like the great Cave-Bear, And you, my sweet, from head to feet, Were gowned in your glorious hair.

Deep in the gloom of a fireless cave, When the night fell o'er the plain, And the moon hung red o'er the river bed, We mumbled the bones of the slain.

I flaked a flint to a cutting edge, And shaped it with brutish craft; I broke a shank from the woodland dank, And fitted it, head to haft.

Then I hid me close in the reedy tarn, Where the Mammoth came to drink-- Through brawn and bone I drave the stone, And slew him upon the brink.

Loud I howled through the moonlit wastes, Loud answered our kith and kin; From west and east to the crimson feast The clan came trooping in.

O'er joint and gristle and padded hoof, We fought and clawed and tore, And cheek by jowl, with many a growl, We talked the marvel o'er.

I carved that fight on a reindeer bone With rude and hairy hand; I pictured his fall on the cavern wall That men might understand.

For we lived by blood and the right of might, Ere human laws were drawn, And the Age of Sin did not begin Till our brutal tusks were gone.

And that was a million years ago, In a time that no man knows; Yet here to-night in the mellow light, We sit at Delmonico's.

Your eyes are deep as the Devon springs, Your hair is as dark as jet, Your years are few, your life is new, Your soul untried, and yet--

Our trail is on the Kimmeridge clay, And the scarp of the Purbeck flags; We have left our bones in the Bagshot stones, And deep in the Coralline crags.

Our love is old, and our lives are old, And death shall come amain.

Should it come to-day, what man may say We shall not live again?

G.o.d wrought our souls from the Tremadoc beds And furnished them wings to fly; He sowed our sp.a.w.n in the world's dim dawn, And I know that it shall not die; Though cities have sprung above the graves Where the crook-boned men made war, And the ox-wain creaks o'er the buried caves Where the mummied mammoths are.

Then, as we linger at luncheon here, O'er many a dainty dish, Let us drink anew to the time when you Were a Tadpole and I was a Fish.

Langdon Smith [1858-1908]

A REASONABLE AFFLICTION

On his death-bed poor Lubin lies: His spouse is in despair; With frequent cries, and mutual sighs, They both express their care.

"A different cause," says Parson Sly, "The same effect may give: Poor Lubin fears that he may die; His wife, that he may live."

Matthew Prior [1664-1721]

A MORAL IN SEVRES

Upon my mantel-piece they stand, While all its length between them lies; He throws a kiss with graceful hand, She glances back with bashful eyes.

The china Shepherdess is fair, The Shepherd's face denotes a heart Burning with ardor and despair.

Alas, they stand so far apart!