Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/129

THE DIAMOND WEDDING THE DIAMOND WEDDING

! Love! Love! what times were those,

Long ere the age of belles and beaux

And Brussels lace and silken hose,

When, in the green Arcadian close,

You married Psyche, under the rose,

With only the grass for bedding!

Heart to heart, and hand to hand,

You followed Nature's sweet command—

Roaming lovingly through the land,

Nor sighed for a Diamond Wedding.

So have we read, in classic Ovid,

How Hero watched for her beloved,

Impassioned youth, Leander.

She was the fairest of the fair,

And wrapt him round with her golden hair,

Whenever he landed cold and bare,

With nothing to eat and nothing to wear

And wetter than any gander;

For Love was Love, and better than money;

The slyer the theft, the sweeter the honey;

And kissing was clover, all the world over,

Wherever Cupid might wander.

So thousands of years have come and gone,

And still the moon is shining on,

Still Hymen's torch is lighted;

And hitherto, in this land of the West,

Most couples in love have thought it best

To follow the ancient way of the rest,

And quietly get united.

But now, True Love, you're growing old—

Bought and sold, with silver and gold, 99