"I TOOK A HANSOM ON TO-DAY"
I took a hansom on to-day,
For a round I used to know—
That I used to take for a woman's sake
In a fever of to-and-fro.
There were the landmarks one and all—
What did they stand to show?
Street and square and river were there—
Where was the ancient woe?
Never a hint of a challenging hope
Nor a hope laid sick and low,
But a longing dead as its kindred sped
A thousand years ago!
William Ernest Henley [1849-1903]
DA CAPO
Short and sweet, and we've come to the end of it—
Our poor little love lying cold.
Shall no sonnet, then, ever be penned of it?
Nor the joys and pains of it told?
How fair was its face in the morning,
How close its caresses at noon,
How its evening grew chill without warning,
Unpleasantly soon!
I can't say just how we began it—
In a blush, or a smile, or a sigh;
Fate took but an instant to plan it;
It needs but a moment to die.
Yet—remember that first conversation,
When the flowers you had dropped at your feet
I restored. The familiar quotation
Was—"Sweets to the sweet."