C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Schuyler King

OH prithee, swing thy casement wide

And listen, gentle maid,

While I, thy poster knight, twang forth

A poster serenade.

The dark-mauve sun has sunk to rest

Behind the square red hill;

No more the orange ostrich struts

Beside the yellow rill.

The pale-blue cows with coral eyes

Have left the sable lawn;

And all the dainty purple sheep,

They too, beloved, have gone.

Cavorting through the chocolate hedge,

No ramphorhyncus comes;

From yonder plum-tree none essay

To pluck the curly plums.

Then haste, I pray thee, loved one, haste!

Bind up that Nile-green tress;

Enhance thy beauteous angles by

Thy most composite dress.

Then forth into the Beardsley night

We’ll issue hand in hand,

To plight our fin-de-siècle vows

In dreaming Poster Land.