Page:The Yellow Book - 04.djvu/322

 Proem to ”The Wonderful

Mission of Earl Lavender”

By John Davidson

our eyes turn ever waveward Where our sun is well-nigh set; Though our Century totters graveward
 * We may laugh a little yet.

Oh! our age-end style perplexes
 * All our elders time has tamed;

On our sleeves we wear our sexes,
 * Our diseases, unashamed.

Have we lost the mood romantic
 * That was once our right by birth?

Lo! the greenest girl is frantic
 * With the woe of all the earth.

But we know a British rumour,
 * And we think it whispers well:

"We would ventilate our humour
 * In the very jaws of Hell."

Though