IN the years about twenty (When kisses are plenty) The love of an Irish lass fell to my fate -- So winsome and sightly, So saucy and sprightly, The priest was a prophet that christened her Kate. Soft gray of the dawning, Bright blue of the morning, The sweet of her eye there was nothing to mate; A nose like a fairy's, A cheek like a cherry's, And a smile -- well, her smile was like -- nothing but Kate. To see her was passion, To love her, the fashion; What wonder my heart was unwilling to wait! And, daring to love her, I soon did discover A Katharine masking as mischievous Kate. No Katy unruly, But Katharine, truly -- Fond, serious, patient, and even sedate; With a glow in her gladness That banishes sadness -- Yet stay! Should I credit the sunshine to @3Kate?@1 Love cannot outlive it, Wealth cannot o'ergive it -- That saucy surrender she made at the gate. O Time, be but human, Spare the girl in the woman! You gave me my Katharine -- leave me my Kate! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NO PLATONIQUE LOVE by WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT A SONG TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY GOING OUT OF TOWN IN THE SPRING by JOHN DRYDEN THE GRAVE OF LOVE by THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK THE ORCHARD PIT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI AUNT CAROLINE by ANNYE LEWIS ALLISON COMPARES THE TROUBLES WHICH HE HAS UNDERGONE, TO LABOURS OF HERCULES by PHILIP AYRES ULYSSES BUILDS HIS BED by JEAN DE BOSSCHERE |