FAIR lady with the bandaged eye! I'll pardon all thy scurvy tricks, So thou wilt cut me, and deny Alike thy kisses and thy kicks: I'm quite contented as I am, Have cash to keep my duns at bay, Can choose between beefsteaks and ham, And drink Madeira every day. My station is the middle rank, My fortune - just a competence -- Ten thousand in the Franklin Bank, And twenty in the six per cents; No amorous chains my heart enthrall, I neither borrow, lend, nor sell; Fearless I roam the City Hall, And bite my thumb at Sheriff Bell. The horse that twice a week I ride At Mother Dawson's eats his fill; My books at Goodrich's abide, My country-seat is Weehawk hill; My morning lounge is Eastburn's shop, At Poppleton's I take my lunch, Niblo prepares my mutton-chop, And Jennings makes my whiskey-punch. When merry, I the hours amuse By squibbing Bucktails, Guards, and Balls, And when I'm troubled with the blues Damn Clinton and abuse canals: Then, Fortune, since I ask no prize, At least preserve me from thy frown! The man who don't attempt to rise 'T were cruelty to tumble down. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWILIGHT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW GARDEN DAYS: 2. NEST EGGS by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE MENU by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE BLUEBIRD by WILLIAM P. ALEXANDER LOST BUT FOUND by HORATIO (HORATIUS) BONAR |