The grasshoppers, wasps, and the aunts, and the cousins
Are coming, whilst trumpets are blowing by dozens.
The pastor, the mole, in black dignified state,
Has also arrived, and the hour grows late.
The bells are all sounding ding-dong, ding-a-dong—
But where’s my dear bridegroom ling’ring so long?
Ding dong, ding-a-dong, sound the bells all the day,
The bridegroom however has flown far away.
The bells are all sounding ding-dong, ding-a-dong—
But where’s my dear bridegroom ling’ring so long?
The bridegroom has meanwhile taken his seat
On a distant dunghill, enjoying the heat.
Seven years there sits he, until his forgotten
Poor bride has long been dead and rotten.
14. MIMI.
“I’m no modest city creature
“By the hearth demurely spinning,
“But a free cat on the roof,
“In the air, with manners winning.
“When in summer nights I’m musing
“On the roof, in grateful coolness,
“Music in me purrs, I sing
“From my heart’s o’erpowering fulness.”