Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/398

SONGS AND BALLADS And that cherished portrait of Shakespeare, sold,

One hungry evening, at half its cost.

I was a beggar and you were kind:

A kiss from your fair round arms I'd steal,

While the folio-Dante we gayly spread

With a hundred chestnuts, our frugal meal.

And oh! when first my favored mouth

A kiss to your burning lips had given,

You were dishevelled and all aglow;

I, pale with rapture, believed in Heaven.

Do you remember our countless joys,

Those neckerchiefs rumpled every day?

Alas, what sighs from our boding hearts

The infinite skies have borne away!

TOUJOURS AMOUR

tell me, Dimple-Chin,

At what age does Love begin?

Your blue eyes have scarcely seen

Summers three, my fairy queen,

But a miracle of sweets,

Soft approaches, sly retreats,

Show the little archer there,

Hidden in your pretty hair;

When didst learn a heart to win?

Prithee tell me, Dimple-Chin!

'T is so long I can't remember:

Ask some younger lass than I!"

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