THE MODERN MAY QUEEN.
(The Result of the First Fortnight).
DON'T wake and call me early, pray don't call me, mother dear,
To-morrow may be the coldest day of all this cold New Year;
Of all this wintry year, mother, the wildest stormiest day,
And we have had fires in May, mother, we have had fires in May.
I sleep so sound at night, mother, that I don't want to wake,
With the horrid thermometer standing at what seems a sad mistake;
But none so wise as those who read the weather forecasts, they say;
Shall we have more fires in May, mother? must we have more fires in May?
A storm is coming across, mother, the New York Herald has said,
And, if you please, I'd rather lie as long as I like in bed;
So bother the knots and garlands, mother, and all the foolish play,
If we're to have fires in May, mother, why—we must have fires in May.
Punch, May 28, 1881.
The following parody appeared originally in a clever little Cambridge University Magazine, entitled Light Green, which has long been out of print. Light Green contained many excellent parodies, notable amongst them being:—The May Exam., after Tennyson; The Song of the Shirk, after Hood; The Heathen Pass-ee, after Bret Harte; and The Vulture and the Husbandman, after Lewis Carroll. These, with several other amusing pieces of poetry, have been reprinted in a small pamphlet, which can be obtained from W. Metcalfe and Son, Trinity-street, Cambridge.