TO JAMES IN THE BATH.

Without the bolted door at muse I stand,

My restive sponge and towel in my hand.

Thus to await you, Jimmy, is not strange,

But as I wait I mark a woeful change.

Time was when wrathfully I should have heard

Loud jubilation mock my hope deferred;

For who, first in the bathroom, fit and young,

Would, as he washed, refrain from giving tongue,