Passer Le Temps.

So that's the way you pass your time!         Indeed your charming, frank confession     Betrays no sort of heinous crime,         But marks a wonderful digression     From puritanic views, less bold,     That we were early taught to hold.     "Passer le temps," of course, implies         A little cycle of flirtations,     Wherein the actors never rise         To sober, serious relations,     But play just for amusement's sake     A harmless game of "give and take."     While moments pass on pinions fleet,         And youth in beauty effloresces,     The joy that finds itself complete         In honeyed words and soft caresses,     Alas! an index seems to be     Of perilous inconstancy.     It may be with disdainful smile         You greet this comment from a stranger,     Your pleasure-paths pursuing while         A siren voice discounts the danger,     Until, some day, in sadder rhyme     You rue your mode of "passing time."