Page:Poems Sigourney, 1834.pdf/97

To visit his classmate Gentiana, who chose
His abode on the Alps, in a palace of snows:
But he took on Mont Blanc such a terrible chill
That ever since that he'd been pallid and ill.
    Half withered Miss Hackmetack bought a new glass,
And thought with her neices, the Spruces, to pass;
But Bachelor Holly, who spyed her out late,
Destroyed all her hopes by a hint at her date:
So she pursed up her mouth and said tartly with scorn,
"She could not remember before she was born."
Old Jonquil the crooked-backed beau had been told
That a tax would be laid on bachelor's gold;
So he bought a new coat and determined to try
The long disused armour of Cupid, so sly,
Sought out half opened buds in their infantine years,
And ogled them all, till they blushed to the ears.
    Philosopher Sage, on a sofa was prosing,
With good Dr. Chamomile quietly dozing;
Though the Laurel descanted with eloquent breath,
Of heroes and battles, of victory and death,
Of the conquests of Greece, and Botzaris the brave,
"He had trod on his steps and had sighed o'er his grave."
Farmer Sunflower was near, and decidedly spake
Of the "poultry he fed, and the oil he might make;"
For the true-hearted soul deemed a weather-stained face,
And a toil-hardened hand no mark of disgrace.
Then he beckoned his nieces to rise from their seat,
The plump Dandelion and Cowslip so neat,
And bade them to "pack up their duds and away
For he believed in his heart 'twas the break o' the day."
    'Twas indeed very late, and the coaches were brought,
For the grave matron flowers of their nurseries thought;
The lustre was dimmed of each drapery rare,
And the lucid young brows looked beclouded with care;
All save the bright Cereus, that belle so divine,
Who preferred through the curtains of midnight to shine.