IF YOU WANT A KISS, WHY, TAKE IT

THERE’S a jolly Saxon proverb That is pretty much like this— That a man is half in heaven If he has a woman’s kiss. There is danger in delaying, For the sweetness may forsake it; So I tell you, bashful lover, If you want a kiss, why, take it. Never let another fellow Steal a march on you in this; Never let a laughing maiden See you spoiling for a kiss. There’s a royal way to kissing, And the jolly ones who make it Have a motto that is winning,— If you want a kiss, why, take it. Any fool may face a cannon, Anybody wear a crown, But a man must win a woman If he’d have her for his own. Would you have the golden apple, You must find the tree and shake it; If the thing is worth the having, And you want a kiss, why take it. Who would burn upon a desert With a forest smiling by? Who would change his sunny summer For a bleak and wintry sky? Oh, I tell you there is magic, And you cannot, cannot break it; For the sweetest part of loving Is to want a kiss, and take it. Anonymous.