(TO A CIVIL QUESTION.)
BRIGHT creature of impulse, you bid
me be gay.
I would gladly adopt the suggestion,
But candour compels me sincerely to say
That I don't like the tone of your ques-
tion.
In a voice that recalls the soft murmur
of bees,
And in syllables sweet as their honey,
You say "Mamma wishes to know, if you please,
When you mean to begin to be funny?"
To-night, giddy child, when I enter'd the room
My inducement, believe me, was only
A hope that the wine-cup and dance might illume
For one evening a life that is lonely.
In this region of pleasure my clouded career
May be thought for a time pretty sunny;
I 'll join in the valse or the banquet, my dear,
But I cannot begin to be funny.
Go, tell your Mamma that the sun may arise
On a day when my cares shall have left me;
When Time shall once more have brought back, as he
flies,
All the hopes of which Time has bereft me.
Yes, the day may arrive that shall see me content
With my share of health, talent, and money:
Then, fitly to hail that auspicious event,
I will try to begin to be funny!