Page 15 - Poetry-Romance

So madame in sighs bewailing
For hopes which were in vain;
Ma belle in tears dissolving
Her dream—Chateaux des Espagne.

— A.E. Palmer (Godey’s, 1873)

The Ballad of Arabella

‘Twas the good fast yacht, The Mermaid, that went sailing down the bay,
With a party predetermined to be jolly, one would say,
By the demijohns and boxes, by the lemons and the beer,
And the ice, that went aboard her just before she left the pier.

With the wind upon her quarter, how she courtesies and careens
To the nodding, laughing billows! how her tower of canvas leans!
Past the headland, by the islands, with the flying gulls she flew,
And her long wake lay behind her like a stripe across the blue.

And I guess that all were happy on her deck, except, perhaps,
Mr. Brown—one of your poetizing, sentimental chaps:
In the midst of joy and juleps he sits spiritless and pale,
With his chin upon his knuckles and his elbows on the rail—
Quite Byronic, I assure you—and his mournful gaze intent
On the fascinating features of Miss Arabella Bent.
That is she beside the mast there, with the tumbler and the straw:
Such a laugh you hear but seldom, and such teeth you never saw.
Quite distinguished for her beauty—say, a dozen years ago—
And as famous for her fortune: that has doubled, as we know.
And I say it is a pity that an heiress can’t invest
In some Beauty-saving Fund, and keep her charms at interest.
But though envious tongues will tell you that the native growth is thin
On her temples, and perhaps a shade too heavy on her chin,
Still Miss Arabella tosses a superb array of curls,
And the downy lips are parted by a dazzling row of pearls.

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