| Fuess and Stearns, comps. The Little Book of Society Verse. 1922. | | | | Senex’s Soliloquy on His Youthful Idol | | By Thomas Campbell |
| | | PLATONIC friendship, at your years, | |
| Says Conscience, should content ye: | |
| Nay, name not fondness to her ears— | |
| The darling’s scarcely twenty. | |
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| Yes; and she’ll loathe me, unforgiven, | 5 |
| To dote thus out of season; | |
| But beauty is a beam from heaven | |
| That dazzles blind our reason. | |
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| I’ll challenge Plato from the skies, | |
| Yes, from his spheres harmonic, | 10 |
| To look in Mary Campbell’s eyes | |
| And try to be Platonic. | | | | |
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