Farewell

Provoked By Calverley's "Forever"     "Farewell!" Another gloomy word         As ever into language crept.     'Tis often written, never heard,                 Except     In playhouse. Ere the hero flits,         In handcuffs, from our pitying view.     "Farewell!" he murmurs, then exits                 R. U.     "Farewell" is much too sighful for         An age that has not time to sigh.     We say, "I'll see you later," or                 "Good by!"     When, warned by chanticleer, you go         From her to whom you owe devoir,     "Say not 'good by,'" she laughs, "but                 'Au Revoir!'"     Thus from the garden are you sped;         And Juliet were the first to tell     You, you were silly if you said                 "Farewell!"     "Farewell," meant long ago, before         It crept, tear-spattered, into song,     "Safe voyage!" "Pleasant journey!" or                 "So long!"     But gone its cheery, old-time ring;         The poets made it rhyme with knell,     Joined it became a dismal thing,                 "Farewell!"     "Farewell!" into the lover's soul         You see Fate plunge the fatal iron.     All poets use it. It's the whole                 Of Byron.     "I only feel, farewell!" said he;         And always fearful was the telling,     Lord Byron was eternally                 Farewelling.     "Farewell!" A dismal word, 'tis true         (And why not tell the truth about it!);     But what on earth would poets do                 Without it?