A BILLET-DOUX.
Reading edition
———
BY FRANCES S. OSGOOD.
———
Is your soul at home to-day,
Eulalie?
And if it be,
May mine come in and stay,
Eulalie?
Or has yours gone out to play,
Eulalie!
And if it be,
Will it be long away,
Eulalie?
I know it is the willfulest of things,
Eulalie!
But if it be
Too gay to shut an hour its frolic wings,
Eulalie,
When it alights, so tenderly it sings,
Eulalie,
That as for me,
More joy than some that longer stay it brings,
Eulalie!
And I would not have it fettered for the world,
Eulalie!
For if it be—
Ah! that lip, with laughing scorn I see it curled,
Eulalie!
Its wings would lose their light if they were furled,
Eulalie!
Then not for me,
No fetter be on them for all the world,
Eulalie!
If my soul, on calling, “not at home,” is told,
Eulalie,
I would make free
To wait till yours came back, tired and cold,
Eulalie!
And then it will be glad its wings to fold,
Eulalie,
And I should see
How long I might the glorious truant hold,
Eulalie!
They say that more domestic and more tame,
Eulalie,
It ought to be!
But if Heaven gave it wings, were you to blame,
Eulalie?
Ah, no! to tie a Peri were a shame,
Eulalie!
And they might see
It always carried joy where’er it came,
Eulalie!