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. O (VILLANELLE.) SINGER of the field and fold, THEOCRITUS! Pan's pipe was thine, 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 |