GWENDOLYN GAY
Fair Gwendolyn Gay, one summer's day,
All bright and fresh as a May flower,
Was galloping on her laughing way,
The length of her thoroughbred's power.
A sport maid was she, Gwendolyn Gay,
With a daring and spirit of man,
Without one to prevent or say nay.
She stopped not, but onward she ran.
One day, she was riding on to see
Where the fairest of flowers could lay,
With her groom in the rear a degree—
As the custom and habit they may.
They had passed by a horseman so bold,
In the slope where the two rivers meet;
One was rushing with white fringe on gold,
One was melting in green and blue heat.
Such a vision as did flash on his sight?
He, in happy surprise, jerked the bit,
More to gaze upon one fair and bright.
His mare's spirit was wounded, to wit,
Head uplifted, and ears raised to know
This treatment, so rough to her, show?
Quivering tense, as was tightened her goad,
She sprung wild, and her young rider threw.
All so quickly, in truth, was this done
That my words are too many and small
To tell you. They just come one by one.
It doesn't take long for horses to fall.
All bright and fresh as a May flower,
Was galloping on her laughing way,
The length of her thoroughbred's power.
A sport maid was she, Gwendolyn Gay,
With a daring and spirit of man,
Without one to prevent or say nay.
She stopped not, but onward she ran.
One day, she was riding on to see
Where the fairest of flowers could lay,
With her groom in the rear a degree—
As the custom and habit they may.
They had passed by a horseman so bold,
In the slope where the two rivers meet;
One was rushing with white fringe on gold,
One was melting in green and blue heat.
Such a vision as did flash on his sight?
He, in happy surprise, jerked the bit,
More to gaze upon one fair and bright.
His mare's spirit was wounded, to wit,
Head uplifted, and ears raised to know
This treatment, so rough to her, show?
Quivering tense, as was tightened her goad,
She sprung wild, and her young rider threw.
All so quickly, in truth, was this done
That my words are too many and small
To tell you. They just come one by one.
It doesn't take long for horses to fall.
[125]
