Spring in New Hampshire/Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table, Sings

by Claude McKay

Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table, Sings

Alfonso is a handsome bronze-hued lad
Of subtly-changing and surprising parts;
His moods are storms that frighten and make glad,
His eyes were made to capture women's hearts.

 

Down in the glory-hole Alfonso sings
An olden song of wine and clinking glasses
And riotous rakes; magnificently flings
Gay kisses to imaginary lasses.

 

Alfonso's voice of mellow music thrills
Our swaying forms and steals our hearts with joy;
And, when he soars, his fine falsetto trills
Are rarest notes of gold without alloy.

 

But O! Alfonso, wherefore do you sing
Dream-songs of carefree men and ancient places?
Soon shall we be beset by clamouring
Of hungry and importunate palefaces.