free-verse117 lines

Gemini And Virgo.

by Charles Stuart Calverley

Some vast amount of years ago,

Ere all my youth had vanished from me,

A boy it was my lot to know,

Whom his familiar friends called Tommy.

I love to gaze upon a child;

A young bud bursting into blossom;

Artless, as Eve yet unbeguiled,

And agile as a young opossum:

And such was he. A calm-browed lad,

Yet mad, at moments, as a hatter:

Why hatters as a race are mad

I never knew, nor does it matter.

He was what nurses call a 'limb;'

One of those small misguided creatures,

Who, though their intellects are dim,

Are one too many for their teachers:

And, if you asked of him to say

What twice 10 was, or 3 times 7,

He'd glance (in quite a placid way)

From heaven to earth, from earth to heaven:

And smile, and look politely round,

To catch a casual suggestion;

But make no effort to propound

Any solution of the question.

And so not much esteemed was he

Of the authorities: and therefore

He fraternized by chance with me,

Needing a somebody to care for:

And three fair summers did we twain

Live (as they say) and love together;

And bore by turns the wholesome cane

Till our young skins became as leather:

And carved our names on every desk,

And tore our clothes, and inked our collars;

And looked unique and picturesque,

But not, it may be, model scholars.

We did much as we chose to do;

We'd never heard of Mrs. Grundy;

All the theology we knew

Was that we mightn't play on Sunday;

And all the general truths, that cakes

Were to be bought at four a-penny,

And that excruciating aches

Resulted if we ate too many:

And seeing ignorance is bliss,

And wisdom consequently folly,

The obvious result is this -

That our two lives were very jolly.

At last the separation came.

Real love, at that time, was the fashion;

And by a horrid chance, the same

Young thing was, to us both, a passion.

Old POSER snorted like a horse:

His feet were large, his hands were pimply,

His manner, when excited, coarse:-

But Miss P. was an angel simply.

She was a blushing gushing thing;

All - more than all - my fancy painted;

Once - when she helped me to a wing

Of goose - I thought I should have fainted.

The people said that she was blue:

But I was green, and loved her dearly.

She was approaching thirty-two;

And I was then eleven, nearly.

I did not love as others do;

(None ever did that I've heard tell of;)

My passion was a byword through

The town she was, of course, the belle of.

Oh sweet - as to the toilworn man

The far-off sound of rippling river;

As to cadets in Hindostan

The fleeting remnant of their liver -

To me was ANNA; dear as gold

That fills the miser's sunless coffers;

As to the spinster, growing old,

The thought - the dream - that she had offers.

I'd sent her little gifts of fruit;

I'd written lines to her as Venus;

I'd sworn unflinchingly to shoot

The man who dared to come between us:

And it was you, my Thomas, you,

The friend in whom my soul confided,

Who dared to gaze on her - to do,

I may say, much the same as I did.

One night I SAW him squeeze her hand;

There was no doubt about the matter;

I said he must resign, or stand

My vengeance - and he chose the latter.

We met, we 'planted' blows on blows:

We fought as long as we were able:

My rival had a bottle-nose,

And both my speaking eyes were sable.

When the school-bell cut short our strife,

Miss P. gave both of us a plaster;

And in a week became the wife

Of Horace Nibbs, the writing-master.

* * *

I loved her then - I'd love her still,

Only one must not love Another's:

But thou and I, my Tommy, will,

When we again meet, meet as brothers.

It may be that in age one seeks

Peace only: that the blood is brisker

In boy's veins, than in theirs whose cheeks

Are partially obscured by whisker;

Or that the growing ages steal

The memories of past wrongs from us.

But this is certain - that I feel

Most friendly unto thee, oh Thomas!

And wheresoe'er we meet again,

On this or that side the equator,

If I've not turned teetotaller then,

And have wherewith to pay the waiter,

To thee I'll drain the modest cup,

Ignite with thee the mild Havannah;

And we will waft, while liquoring up,

Forgiveness to the heartless ANNA.