Poetry.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2614, 13 April 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

Poetry.

WHAT i JDID.

If someone praised your face and form, Admired your golden hair. And aairl iliiit 1m had never sp.eu A maiden half so fair ; And if when 'or he c:>nie to dine, Ho nretty presents brought, And hnpeil you would accept the same— l'rßy, what would yim have thought ? Suppose one day his impuilonco Had grown »o Link] as this : To place his arm around ynnr waist, .And then tu steal a ki*s ; Would yon have turned indignantly, And from his presence run, Or with your hand have slapped his face— Pray, what would you have done? Then, if he some contrition showed IVr what did you displease. And begged that you would pardon him Upon his bended knees, And if he said ho could not live Unless with him you'd wed Would you have answered him with scorn— Pray, what would you have said ? I don't know what you might have said, Or might have done or thought, And you might think T did not act Exactly as I ought: I laid my cheek against, his breast, My blushes than were hid, And said I'd he his loving wife— Now, that's just what I did. Nkmo. ONLY A WOMAN DKCJNK. O.vr.Y a woman drunk ! What of that ? 'Tis a common sight ! Fifteen thousand a year of these, Forty-one locked up each night, Our civilised Christian London sees One taken, while nine in like plight Sot on, or reel home at their oase. Only a woman drunk ! But look at the children there, Trooping behind with callous glee, Mocking her curses which ring through the air ; An object-lesson in p.iganry, Free school of morals, a prospect fair Whan wives and mothers these children bo. Only a woman drunk ! Why not? for a mother's "nourishing" stout, And the sip of gin for a childish treat, And the social glass of the " Sunday out," And the "drop together" when neighbours meet, In the course of nature will bring it about That the innocent child grows the drab of the street. Only a woman drunk ! Did the parents give precept alone? Was the teacher cruelly dumb, And f»avo for the bread of example, a stone? Was the right hand of sisterhood numb ? Did respectable friends merely utter a groan, And always say "Go," and never " Come ?" Only a woman drunk ! But somebody's sister, I think— : And I had the sweetest of all 'Till she married a rascal who taught her to drink. ; Then strife—a divorce—deeper fall. But why am I drawn to follow this crowd, and yet shrink ? — Oh God !it is she—that thing whom they < call , " Only a woman drunk !" j —London Echo. '