Page:Poems Osgood.djvu/134

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
124
the lover's list.

"Then count me them truly, rover
And the noble knight obey'd,
And of names, a dozen and over
He traced within the shade.

Fair Evelyn pouted proudly;
She sigh'd—" Will he never have done
And at last she murmur'd loudly,
"I thought he would write but one!"

"Now read!"—said the gay youth, rising—
"The scroll,—it is fair and free,
In truth there is no disguising,
That list is the world to me!"

She read it with joy and wonder,
For the first was her own sweet name,
And again and again written under,
It was still—it was still the same!

It began with—"my Evelyn fairest!"
It ended with—"Evelyn best!"
And epithets fondest and dearest
Vere lavish'd between on the rest.—