Leave me with her! When she is prattling,
My soul drinks in the music dear
Of that sweet voice, so gaily rattling,—
Her look so faithful is and clear!
For health alone and means of living,
Lord, ask I! Let me stay below
For many a day its blessings giving,
Beside my wife in statu quo!
9. THE DRAGONFLY.
The beauteous dragonfly’s dancing
By the waves of the rivulet glancing;
She dances here and she dances there,
The glimmering, glittering flutterer fair.
Full many a beetle with loud applause
Admires her dress of azure gauze,
Admires her body’s bright splendour,
And also her figure so slender.
Full many a beetle, to his cost,
His modicum small of reason lost;
Her wooers are humming of love and truth,
Brabant and Holland pledging forsooth.
The dragonfly smiled and thus spake she:
“Brabant and Holland are nought to me;
“But haste, if my charms you admire,
“And fetch me a sparklet of fire.
“The cook has just been brought to bed,
“And I my supper must cook instead;
“The coals on the hearth are burnt away,—
“So fetch me a sparklet of fire, I pray.”
Scarce had the false one spoken the word,
When off the beetles flew, like a bird.
They seek for fire, and soon they find
Their home in the wood’s left far behind.
At length they see a candle’s light
In garden-bower burning bright;
And then with amorous senseless aim,
They headlong rush in the candle’s flame.