Country Life in America
BY ANNE O'HAGAN
DECORATIONS BY OLIVER HERFORD
COME live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That stream and valley, dale and field,
Efficiently remodeled, yield.
The dell where I shall hide thee, dear,
Must to the 'Change be fairly near—
An hour from town, if aëroplaned—
And thoroughly sub-tiled and drained.
For vine-wreathed cot I 'll build thee there
The Villa d'Este, copied fair.
With thirty baths, all water-filled
From subterranean wells I 've drilled.
I ll build—of course!—a theater
Where thou, with comrades amateur,
May'st work to elevate the stage.
Chief rural pastime of our age.
When in the dusk the fireflies flit
About thy lawns, thy windows, lit
From my great dynamo, will shame
Their poor, pale phosphorescent flame.
Sometimes thou 'lt stroll in dappled shade
Through woodland paths, macadam-laid;
And gather lilies, silver-cool,
From many a well-cemented pool.
The nut, the berry, sweet and wild,
Shall give thee of their flavors mild,
Judiciously eked out with quail.
With truffles, and madeira pale.
Come live with me and be my love.
And we will all the pleasures prove
That stream and valley, dale and field,
The Plaza or the Ritz can yield.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1933, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 90 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse