WHEN first we met she was three feet high, And three, I think, was her age as well, A touch of the heaven was in her eye; I cannot say she was very shy, (As you'll see by her actions by and by), But the way I behaved I blush to tell. We met at a party, on the stair; She was decked in ribbons and silk galore, She smiled with a most bewitching air, And then, I'm afraid, I pulled her hair. You know you can't expect savoir-faire Of a cavalier of the age of four! She only laughed with her subtle charm, And took it more sweetly than you'd have believed, But later she really took alarm -- When she wanted to kiss me I pinched her arm, And she ran away to escape from harm; At which, no doubt, I was much relieved. She did not offer to kiss again; I saw her go off with another beau, She pretended to hold up her ten-inch train, And whispered low to her new-found swain. I was eating ice-cream with might and main, -- And that was some seventeen years ago. I see her to-night on the winding stair, She replies with a smile to my sober bow; The palms lean lovingly toward her hair, And her foot keeps time to a distant air. I'm afriad she does not recall or care -- She does not offer to kiss me now! Heigho! What a sad, what a sweet affair, What a curious mixture life seems to be! I am fast in the net of love, and there, With another man on the winding stair, Is the girl I love, -- and I pulled her hair When she wanted a kiss at the age of three! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: JOHN SCOFIELD by EDGAR LEE MASTERS OH, SWEET CONTENT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE HAPPY LIFE by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS SONG OF THE BROAD-AXE by WALT WHITMAN THE MOTHERLAND by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A CALL TO ARMS by MARY RAYMOND SHIPMAN ANDREWS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 44. ALLAH-AL-RAKIB by EDWIN ARNOLD THE HOUSE OF THE FALSE PROPHET by WILLIAM ROSE BENET HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 26 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |