Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/569

NEW POEMS Of a great deal of charm by this—

Not quite the bull's eye for a kiss—

But like the gnome of olden time

Or bogey in a pantomime.

For ladies' love I once was fit,

But now am rather out of it.

Where'er I go, revolted curs

Snap round my military spurs;

The children all retire in fits

And scream their bellowses to bits.

Little I care: the worst's been done:

Now let the cold impoverished sun

Drop frozen from his orbit; let

Fury and fire, cold, wind, and wet,

And cataclysmal mad reverses

Rage through the federate universes;

Let Lawson triumph, cakes and ale,

Whiskey and hock and claret fail;—

Tobacco, love, and letters perish,

With all that any man could cherish:

You it may touch, not me. I dwell

Too deep already—deep in hell;

And nothing can befall, O damn!

To make me uglier than I am.

CLXXXIV

HENLEY, in my hours of ease

You may say anything you please,

But when I join the Muses' revel,

Begad, I wish you at the devil! 555