Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 04

<h2><SPAN name="A_MODERN_ECLOGUE" id="A_MODERN_ECLOGUE"></SPAN>A MODERN ECLOGUE</h2> <h3>BY BLISS CARMAN</h3> <h3><span class="smcap">She</span></h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">If you were ferryman at Charon's ford,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And I came down the bank and called to you,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Waved you my hand and asked to come aboard,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And threw you kisses there, what would you do?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Would there be such a crowd of other girls,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Pleading and pale and lonely as the sea,<br/></span> <span class="i0">You'd growl in your old beard, and shake your curls,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And say there was no room for little me?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Would you remember each of them in turn?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Put all your faded fancies in the bow,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And all the rest before you in the stern,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And row them out with panic on your brow?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">If I came down and offered you my fare<br/></span> <span class="i0">And more beside, could you refuse me there?<br/></span></div> </div> <h3><span class="smcap">He</span></h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">If I were ferryman in Charon's place,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And ran that crazy scow with perilous skill,<br/></span> <span class="i0">I should be so worn out with keeping trace<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of gibbering ghosts and bidding them sit still,<br/></span><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_646" id="Page_646"></SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">If you should come with daisies in your hands,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Strewing their petals on the sombre stream,&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">"He will come," and "He won't come," down the lands<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of pallid reverie and ghostly dream,&mdash;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I would let every clamouring shape stand there,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And give its shadowy lungs free vent in vain,<br/></span> <span class="i0">While you with earthly roses in your hair,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And I grown young at sight of you again,<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Went down the stream once more at half-past seven<br/></span> <span class="i0">To find some brand-new continent of heaven.<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_647" id="Page_647"></SPAN></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />