Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems/Ha! Ha!
HA! HA!
When summer suns are glancing on the merry damsels dancing
’Neath the pendulous aroma of the beauty-blushing vine;
When summer birds are cooing, in a pantomimic wooing
’Mid the azure-dimpled ether, which the poet calls divine:
I win a frolic girl,
From the rustle and the whirl,
And I say she is a seraph and I swear she is a pearl—
Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha!
Who is gentler, who is fairer, ha! ha! who is sweeter,
Who is brighter, ha! ha! who is wittier and neater,
Than the queen of my spirit—its glorified defeater—
Ha! Ha! Ha! Malgherita! Malgherita!
Ha! gaily we are flying, with laughter, love and sighing,
O’er the valley of Berilla, in its livery of green!
Ha! madly we are dashing by the torrent thunder-flashing,
And beyond the echo-flutter of the flute and violin.
Little fairy, little fay,
From the torrent keep away,
Or thy roses and thy ribbons will be waltzing in the spray,
Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha!
Who is gentler, who is fairer—ha! ha! who is sweeter;
Who is brighter, ha! ha! who is wittier and neater,
Than the queen of my spirit—its glorified defeater—
Ha! Ha! Ha! Malgherita! Malgherita!
in the twinkle of a minute, she wildly pours within it
The glory of her tresses like a vivid golden veil;
In a second of derision, she forgetteth her precision,
And is captured by the current as it dashes to the vale.
I shoot beneath the flood
All the lightning of my blood—
I reach her and I save her and I bear her to the wood.
Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha!
Who is gentler, who is fairer—ha! ha! who is sweeter;
Who is brighter, ha! ha! who is wittier and neater,
Than the queen of my spirit—its glorified defeater—
Ha! Ha! Ha! Malgherita! Malgherita!
You may fancy that the fountain, baffled billow of the mountain,
Is singing you this secret as it crashes grandly down;
“What beatitude completer, he is wed to Malgherita,
And they emulate the angels ’neath the summer’s burning crown!”
We are wed! we are wed!
As Khuleborn hath said,
And we envy not the annals of the living or the dead.
Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha!
Who is gentler, who is fairer—ha! ha! who is sweeter;
Who is brighter, ha! ha! who is wittier and neater,
Than the queen of my spirit—its glorified defeater—
Ha! Ha! Ha! Malgherita! Malgherita!