LADY CLARA VERE DE VERE;
OR, RUSTIC ADMIRATION.
LADY CLARA Vere de Vere,
The country sun has made you brown,
And now they tell me that you start
To-morrow afternoon for town;
Ah! how I sighed when I descried
Your lovely form beside the stream
The other day when on my way
I passed with Farmer Jackson's team!
Lady Clara Vere de Vere,
I wish that you would change your name
For such a humble one as mine:
But no—you'd think it quite a shame;
So I must be content to take
My choice of humbler maiden's charms—
Must marry someone who can bake,
And has a sturdy pair of arms.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere,
Some "Lord Dundreary" you must find;
Our rustic bread and cheese and beer
Would hardly suit your taste refined.
If I should write you of my love,
And wait outside for a reply,
The lion on your old stone gates,
Would talk of verdure in his eye.
* * * *
Lady Clara Vere de Vere,
They say—and really p'rhaps they're right—
That I had better give you up,
And marry pretty Sally White;
You are a swell—she loves me well,
And then her cooking is so good—
Jam tarts are more than coronets,
And elder wine than Norman blood!
SPHINX, CHRIST'S COLL., CAMBRIDGE.
College Rhymes, 1868.