1877. Is it Cupid? Who knows! "A ON A NANKIN PLATE. (VILLANELLE.) H me, but it might have been! Was there ever so dismal a fate?" Quoth the little blue mandarin. "Such a maid as was never seen! She passed, tho' I cried to her 'Wait,'— Ah me, but it might have been! "I cried, 'O my Flower, my Queen, Be mine!' 'Twas precipitate,"Quoth the little blue mandarin, "But then.. she was just sixteen,- "As it was, from her palankeen, She laughed 'You're a week too late !'" (Quoth the little blue mandarin.) Q "That is why, in a mist of spleen, 1881. FOR A COPY OF THEOCRITUS. (VILLANELLE.) SINGER of the field and fold, Thine was the happier Age of Gold. For thee the scent of new-turned mould, Thou sang'st the simple feasts of old,— The beechen bowl made glad with wine . . Thine was the happier Age of Gold. Thou bad'st the rustic loves be told,- And round thee, ever-laughing, rolled |