Ballads of a Bohemian

Alas! upon some starry height, The Gods of Excellence to please, This hand of mine will never smite The Harp of High Serenities. Mere minstrel of the street am I, To whom a careless coin you fling; But who, beneath the bitter sky, Blue-lipped, yet insolent of eye, Can shrill a song of Spring; A song of merry mansard days, The cheery chimney-tops among; Of rolics and of roundelays When we were young . . . when we were young; A song of love and lilac nights, Of wit, of wisdom and of wine; Of Folly whirling on the Heights, Of hunger and of hope divine; Of Blanche, Suzette and Celestine, And all that gay and tender band Who shared with us the fat, the lean,