Lines By A Clerk

Oh! I did love her dearly,     And gave her toys and rings,     And I thought she meant sincerely,     When she took my pretty things.     But her heart has grown as icy     As a fountain in the fall,     And her love, that was so spicy,     It did not last at all.     I gave her once a locket,     It was filled with my own hair,     And she put it in her pocket     With very special care.     But a jeweller has got it, -     He offered it to me, -     And another that is not it     Around her neck I see.     For my cooings and my billings     I do not now complain,     But my dollars and my shillings     Will never come again;     They were earned with toil and sorrow,     But I never told her that,     And now I have to borrow,     And want another hat.     Think, think, thou cruel Emma,     When thou shalt hear my woe,     And know my sad dilemma,     That thou hast made it so.     See, see my beaver rusty,     Look, look upon this hole,     This coat is dim and dusty;     Oh let it rend thy soul!     Before the gates of fashion     I daily bent my knee,     But I sought the shrine of passion,     And found my idol, - thee.     Though never love intenser     Had bowed a soul before it,     Thine eye was on the censer,     And not the hand that bore it.