C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
On a Nankin Plate
By Henry Austin Dobson (1840–1921)
Villanelle
“A
Was there ever so dismal a fate?”
Quoth the little blue mandarin.
She passed, tho’ I cried to her, ‘Wait,’—
Ah me, but it might have been!
Be mine!’—’Twas precipitate,”
Quoth the little blue mandarin.
Long-eyed, as a lily straight,—
Ah me, but it might have been!
She laughed—‘You’re a week too late!’”
(Quoth the little blue mandarin.)
I mourn on this Nankin Plate.
Ah me, but it might have been!”
Quoth the little blue mandarin.