Time To Be Wise
By Walter Savage Landor
Yes; I write verses now and then,
But blunt and flaccid is my pen,
No longer talkd of by young men
As rather clever;
In the last quarter are my eyes,
You see it by their form and size;
Is it not time then to be wise?
Or now or never.
Fairest that ever sprang from Eve!
While Time allows the short reprieve,
Just look at me! would you believe
T was once a lover?
I cannot clear the five-bar gate;
But, trying first its timbers state,
Climb stiffly up, take breath, and wait
To trundle over.
Through gallopade I cannot swing
The entangling blooms of Beautys spring:
I cannot say the tender thing,
Be t true or false,
And am beginning to opine
Those girls are only half divine
Whose waists yon wicked boys entwine
In giddy waltz.
I fear that arm above that shoulder;
I wish them wiser, graver, older,
Sedater, and no harm if colder,
And panting less.
Ah! people were not half so wild
In former days, when, starchly mild,
Upon her high-heeld Essex smild
The brave Queen Bess.