| |
| I KNOW not of what we ponder’d | |
| Or made pretty pretence to talk, | |
| As, her hand within mine, we wander’d | |
| Tow’rd the pool by the lime-tree walk, | |
| While the dew fell in showers from the passion flowers | 5 |
| And the blush-rose bent on her stalk. | |
| |
| I cannot recall her figure: | |
| Was it regal as Juno’s own? | |
| Or only a trifle bigger | |
| Than the elves who surround the throne | 10 |
| Of the Faëry Queen, and are seen, I ween, | |
| By mortals in dreams alone? | |
| |
| What her eyes were like I know not: | |
| Perhaps they were blurr’d with tears; | |
| And perhaps in you skies there glow not | 15 |
| (On the contrary) clearer spheres. | |
| No! as to her eyes I am just as wise | |
| As you or the cat, my dears. | |
| |
| Her teeth, I presume, were “pearly:” | |
| But which was she, brunette or blonde? | 20 |
| Her hair, was it quaintly curly, | |
| Or as straight as a beadle’s wand? | |
| That I fail’d to remark: it was rather dark | |
| And shadowy round the pond. | |
| |
| Then the hand that repos’d so snugly | 25 |
| In mine,—was it plump or spare? | |
| Was the countenance fair or ugly? | |
| Nay, children, you have me there! | |
| My eyes were p’haps blurr’d; and besides I ’d heard | |
| That it ’s horribly rude to stare. | 30 |
| |
| And I,—was I brusque and surly? | |
| Or oppressively bland and fond? | |
| Was I partial to rising early? | |
| Or why did we twain abscond, | |
| When nobody knew, from the public view | 35 |
| To prowl by a misty pond? | |
| |
| What pass’d, what was felt or spoken,— | |
| Whether anything pass’d at all,— | |
| And whether the heart was broken | |
| That beat under that shelt’ring shawl,— | 40 |
| (If shawl she had on, which I doubt),—has gone, | |
| Yes, gone from me past recall. | |
| |
| Was I haply the lady’s suitor? | |
| Or her uncle? I can’t make out; | |
| Ask your governess, dears, or tutor. | 45 |
| For myself, I ’m in hopeless doubt | |
| As to why we were there, who on earth we were, | |
| And what this is all about. | |
| |
