The Bab Ballads, with Which Are Included Songs of a Savoyard

by W. S. Gilbert

For days, indeed, but vainly—

The stripling smiled!—to tell the truth,

The stripling smiled inanely.

For weeks the goblin weird and wild,

That noble stripling haunted;

For weeks the stripling stood and smiled

Unmoved and all undaunted.

The sombre ghost exclaimed, "Your plan

Has failed you, goblin, plainly: