Mother Goose for Grownups/To Constance

by Guy Wetmore Carryl

In memory of other days,
Dear critic, when your whispered praise
      Cheered on the limping pen.
How short, how sweet those younger hours,
How bright our suns, how few our showers,
      Alas, we knew not then!

If but, long leagues across the seas,
The trivial charm of rhymes like these
      Shall serve to link us twain
An instant in the olden spell
That once we knew and loved so well,
      I have not worked in vain!