She was a phantom, &c.
In lone Glenartney’s thickets lies couched the lordly stag,
The dreaming terrier’s tail forgets its customary wag;
And plodding ploughmen’s weary steps insensibly grow quicker,
As broadening casements light them on towards home, or home-brewed
liquor.
It is (in fact) the evening–that pure and pleasant time,
When stars break into splendour, and poets into rhyme;
When in the glass of Memory the forms of loved ones shine –
And when, of course, Miss Goodchild’s is prominent in mine.
Miss Goodchild!–Julia Goodchild!–how graciously you smiled
Upon my childish passion once, yourself a fair-haired child:
When I was (no doubt) profiting by Dr. Crabb’s instruction,
And sent those streaky lollipops home for your fairy suction!
“She wore” her natural “roses, the night when first we met” –
Her golden hair was gleaming ‘neath the coercive net:
“Her brow was like the snawdrift,” her step was like Queen Mab’s,
And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at Crabb’s.
The parlour-boarder chasseed tow’rds her on graceful limb;
The onyx decked his bosom–but her smiles were not for him:
With ME she danced–till drowsily her eyes “began to blink,”
And _I_ brought raisin wine, and said, “Drink, pretty creature, drink!”
And evermore, when winter comes in his garb of snows,
And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he grows;
Shall I–with that soft hand in mine–enact ideal Lancers,
And dream I hear demure remarks, and make impassioned answers:-
I know that never, never may her love for me return –
At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised concern –
But ever shall I bless that day: (I don’t bless, as a rule,
The days I spent at “Dr. Crabb’s Preparatory School.”)
And yet–we two MAY meet again–(Be still, my throbbing heart!) –
Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and raspberry tart:-
One night I saw a vision–‘Twas when musk-roses bloom
I stood–WE stood–upon a rug, in a sumptuous dining-room:
One hand clasped hers–one easily reposed upon my hip –
And “BLESS YE!” burst abruptly from Mr. Goodchild’s lip:
I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an answering gleam –
My heart beat wildly–and I woke, and lo! it was a dream.
(Charles Stuart Calverley)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Night Poems, Time Poems, Dreams Poems, Home Poems, Smiling Poems, Education Poems, Hair Poems, Memory Poems, Wine Poems, Facts PoemsBased on Keywords: insensibly, onyx, terrier, broadening, rds, weaned, raspberry, prominent, raisin, mab, ploughmen