'T WAS after a game of tennis; My service had won the set, And, in merry congratulation, Our hands met over the net. I said, half-jesting, half-earnest, "When Jacob so long ago Served fourteen years for a wife, he won in the end, you know; Now, how many years of service would you ask from the man you'd wed?" Though the glance of her eyes belied her, "Fifteen -- love," was what she said. A trifle piqued at her answer, I said, "He would then be old, And your love for the faithful server would perchance have grown cold; Pray tell me what age would suit you in the man you would care to wed?" Though the glance of her eyes belied her, "Thirty -- love," was what she said. "You speak as though you'd decided to marry a man of that age, But your eyes tell a different story, in spite of their look so sage; Now, how many men of that age have you seen whom you'd care to wed?" Though the glance of her eyes belied her, "Forty -- love," was what she said. Half in anger I turned to leave her; but she was a true coquette, And e'er I was out of hearing a whisper came from the net: "Don't you know, you silly fellow, that you are the man I'd wed, And all that I've said was only 'Game -- love,'" she laughingly said. 'T was after a game of tennis; My service had won the set, And, in reconciliation, Our lips met over the net. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A LITTLE DUTCH GARDEN by HARRIET WHITNEY DURBIN FULFILLMENT by ROBERT MALISE BOWYER NICHOLS THE POET'S SONG by ALFRED TENNYSON AMY WENTWORTH; FOR WILLIAM BRADFORD by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER INDIGNATION; AN ODE by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE I HAVE LOVED by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS |