XIX
I Had a Guinea Golden
I had a guinea golden;I lost it in the sand,And though the sum was simple,And pounds were in the land,Still had it such a valueUnto my frugal eye,That when I could not find itI sat me down to sigh.
I had a crimson robinWho sang full many a day,But when the woods were paintedHe, too, did fly away.Time brought me other robins,—Their ballads were the same,—Still for my missing troubadourI kept the ‘house at hame.’
I had a star in heaven;One Pleiad was its name,And when I was not heedingIt wandered from the same.And though the skies are crowded,And all the night ashine,I do not care about it,Since none of them are mine.
My story has a moral:I have a missing friend,—Pleiad its name, and robin,And guinea in the sand,—And when this mournful ditty,Accompanied with tear,Shall meet the eye of traitorIn country far from here,Grant that repentance solemnMay seize upon his mind,And he no consolationBeneath the sun may find.
NOTE.—This poem may have had, like many others, a personal origin. It is more than probable that it was sent to some friend travelling in Europe, a dainty reminder of letter-writing delinquencies.