Perhaps you did not understand,
How lightly flames of love were fanned.
Ah, every thought and wish I've planned
With something clashes!
And yet within my lonely den
Over a pipe, away from men,
I love to throw aside my pen
And stir the ashes.
DE WITT STERRY.
CHOOSING A WIFE BY A PIPE OF TOBACCO.
Tube, I love thee as my life;
By thee I mean to choose a wife.
Tube, thy _color_ let me find,
In her _skin_, and in her _mind_.
Let her have a _shape_ as fine;
Let her breath be sweet as thine;
Let her, when her lips I kiss,
_Burn_ like thee, to give me bliss;
Let her, in some _smoke_ or other,
All my failings kindly smother.
Often when my thoughts are _low_,
Send them where they ought to go;
When to study I incline,
Let her aid be such as thine;
Such as thine the charming power
In the vacant social hour.
Let her live to give delight,
Ever _warm_ and ever _bright_;
Let her deeds, whene'er she dies,
Mount as incense to the skies.
_Gentleman's Magazine_.
MY THREE LOVES.
When Life was all a summer day,
And I was under twenty,
Three loves were scattered in my way--
And three at once are plenty.
Three hearts, if offered with a grace,
One thinks not of refusing;
The task in this especial case
Was only that of choosing.
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