Page 40 - Poetry-Books
P. 40
Of adjectives in euse and ante,
He doth continually speak;
His heroine is ravissante,
For “beautiful” would not be chic!
Boudoir, ennui, café, argo,
His standard favorites always are;
And he for worlds would not forego
The sempiternal boulevard.
His scene is laid upon the Seine,
From him what could you ask of more?
The lover calls his girl ma reine,
And she calls him mon doux trésor.
And then his proper names, with zeal
He could not very well forget;
He dazzles us with Claude, Emile,
Pauline, Adele, and Henriette.
Tired of the hackneyed terms? Not he!
His grand sang froid you little know;
He’d write a page for vis-à-vis,
And twenty more for dos-à-dos!
And, as you read his lovely livre,
Which wonderment from stones could wrench,
You marvel how he still can vivre,
And why he does not write in French!
— F.S.S. (Scribner’s, 1879)
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