PATTER! patter! running feet! Something stirring in the street! Does it come, or does it go? Patter! patter! Friend or foe! Love, the merry tricksy sprite, In my lantern sits to-night. Be it coming, friend or foe, Love will "show him up" I know. Patter! patter! nearer still; Shall I? -- no -- I -- yes -- I will. "Who goes there?" -- "It's only me!" Ah! my little pet Marie! Merry, loving, fond, and fair, In the dark I see you there. Still the sentry I will play: "There's a password, love, to say." What! She cannot answer me? Has she lost her tongue, may be? Never mind, love; face full well Tells what lips refuse to tell! Passwords, questions, little one, We can quite well leave alone. Other folks than we, I know, Shall solve our riddle: Friend or foe? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE KNIGHT'S TOMB by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE GROWING OLD by FRANCIS LEDWIDGE CIVILL WARR by JOSEPH BEAUMONT THIRTEEN AT TABLE by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER I BLOW YOU A KISS by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE |