Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3552, 15 May 1880, Page 1

Select Poetry.

A BACHELOE'S GEOWL*

I'm a grumpy old bachelor Gfrizzly and gray; I'm soven-and-forty If I'm a day. I am fussy and crusty, And dry as a bone; So; ladies, good ladies, Just let me alone. „Go shake out your ringlets, ■ And beam out in smiles, Go tinkle your trinkets And show off your wiles. Bewitch and bewilder Wherever you cau; . But, pray—pray remember, lam not the man! I'm frozen to blushes, I'm prfcof against eyes: I'm hardoned to simpers And stony to sighs; I'm tough' to each dart Thafryonng Cupid can lance j I'm not in the market To any advance. I sew on my buttons, I dam my-own hose, I keep my own counsel I fold my own clothes. I mind my own business, And lire my own life; I won't—no, the dickens— Be plagued with a wife. And yet there's nine spinsters Who believe me their fate; There's two dozen widows Who'd change their estate. - Theie's silly young maidens Who blush at my bow; All—all bent on marrying me, No matter how! j ■ I walk forth in trembling; . ' I come home in dread; I don't fear my heart, - - But I do fear my head! My civilised speech Is a growl or a nod; And that—heaven save me; Is " charmingly odd!" So, ladies-rdear ladies—^ Just hear me, I pray j I speak to you all In the pluralist way My logic is simple „ As logio can be— , *„ . If I won't marry you, - Pray—don't marry me!