ut come with your lover as these lovers came,
And talk to him gaily of me.

And while you are smiling, your father will smile
Such a sweet little daughter to have:
But mind, O yes! mind you are merry the while--
_I wish you to visit my grave_.

MY LIFE IS A--

At Worthing an exile from Geraldine G--,
How aimless, how wretched an exile is he!
Promenades are not even prunella and leather
To lovers, if lovers can't foot them together.

He flies the parade, sad by ocean he stands,
He traces a "Geraldine G" on the sands.
But a G, tho' her lov'd patronymic is Green,
"I will not betray thee, my own Geraldine."

The fortunes of men have a time and a tide,
And Fate, the old fury, will not be denied;
That name was, of course, soon wip'd out by the sea,--
And she jilted the exile, did Geraldine G--.

They meet, but they never have spoken since that,--
He hopes she is happy--he knows she is fat;
_She_ woo'd on the shore, now is wed in the Strand,
And _I_--it was I wrote her name on the sand!

VANITY FAIR

"Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity."

ECCLESIASTES.

"Vanitas Vanitatum" has rung in the ears
Of gentle and simple for thousands of years;
The wail is still heard, yet its notes never scare
Or simple, or gentle, from Vanity Fair.

This Fair has allurements alike to engage
The dimples of youth and the wrinkles of age;
Though mirth may be feigning, though sheen may be glare,
The gingerbread's gilded in Vanity Fair.

Old Dives there rolls in his chariot of state,
There Jack takes his Joan at a lowlier rate,
St Giles', St James', from alley and square,
Send votaries plenty to Vanity Fair.

That goal would be vain where the guerdon was dross,
So come whence they may they must come by a loss:
The tree was enticing,--its branches are bare;
Heigh-ho! for the promise of Vanity Fair.

My son, the sham goddess I warn thee to shun,
Beware of the beautiful temptress, my son;
Her blandishments fly,--or, despising the snare,
Go laugh at the follies of Vanity Fair.

That stupid old Dives, once honest enough,
His honesty sold for Stars, Ribbons, and Stuff;
And Joan's pretty face has been clouded with care
Since Jack bought _her_ ribbons at Vanity Fair.

Contemptible Dives!--t