Complete Poetical Works

SONGS WITHOUT SENSE

FOR THE PARLOR AND PIANO

     I.  THE PERSONIFIED SENTIMENTAL

     Affection's charm no longer gilds
       The idol of the shrine;
     But cold Oblivion seeks to fill
       Regret's ambrosial wine.
     Though Friendship's offering buried lies
       'Neath cold Aversion's snow,
     Regard and Faith will ever bloom
       Perpetually below.

     I see thee whirl in marble halls,
       In Pleasure's giddy train;
     Remorse is never on that brow,
       Nor Sorrow's mark of pain.
     Deceit has marked thee for her own;
       Inconstancy the same;
     And Ruin wildly sheds its gleam
       Athwart thy path of shame.

     II.  THE HOMELY PATHETIC

     The dews are heavy on my brow;
       My breath comes hard and low;
     Yet, mother dear, grant one request,
       Before your boy must go.
     Oh! lift me ere my spirit sinks,
       And ere my senses fail,
     Place me once more, O mother dear,
       Astride the old fence-rail.

     The old fence-rail, the old fence-rail!
       How oft these youthful legs,
     With Alice' and Ben Bolt's, were hung
       Across those wooden pegs!
     'Twas there the nauseating smoke
       Of my first pipe arose:
     O mother dear, these agonies
       Are far less keen than those.

     I know where lies the hazel dell,
       Where simple Nellie sleeps;
     I know the cot of Nettie Moore,
       And where the willow weeps.
     I know the brookside and the mill,
       But all their pathos fails
     Beside the days when once I sat
       Astride the old fence-rails.

     III.  SWISS AIR

     I'm a gay tra, la, la,
     With my fal, lal, la, la,
     And my bright—
     And my light—
         Tra, la, le.       [Repeat.]

     Then laugh, ha, ha, ha,
     And ring, ting, ling, ling,
     And sing fal, la, la,
         La, la, le.        [Repeat.]

     VI.  LITTLE POSTERITY