Page 10 - Poetry-Romance

Hear the loud, amusing belles—
Brazen belles!
What a tale of impudence their turbulency tells!
Their characters are strong,
If you ask them for a song,
You only have to speak,
And they shriek, shriek, shriek,
Out of tune.
Now in clamorous appealing to Apollo’s golden lyre,
Now in lamentation mournful for Erin’s broken lyre,
Singing higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now—now to reach or never,
The pitch of the Nassau balloon.
Oh, the belles, belles, belles,
What a jar their trouble tells
On the ear!
How the music-stool they seize!
How they clang and clash the keys!
In despair.
You give up all enjoyment, for you certainly are right
In concluding that you’ll be compelled to listen all the night
To the singing and the playing of the belles—
Of the belles—
Of the belles, belles, belles, belles,
Belles, belles, belles—
To the clamor and the clangor of the belles!

—(Peterson’s, 1858)

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