For Western bards to perpetrate a wheeze on,

And cover, in a frenzy, page on page

With all the rhymer’s threadbare persiflage.

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We seek in vain the fern-wreaths on your gown,

The dew-drop jewels in your carpet spreading—

Those pæans from the bush-land and the town,

Suggestive, quaintly, of a fairy wedding:

We wait expectantly—then truckle down

To sleep on bags—no rose leaves for our bedding!

And wring our hands, and weep like anything ...