One Ralph Blossom Soliloquizes

When I am in hell or some such place,     A-groaning over my sorry case,     What will those seven women say to me     Who, when I coaxed them, answered "Aye" to me?     "I did not understand your sign!"     Will be the words of Caroline;     While Jane will cry, "If I'd had proof of you,     I should have learnt to hold aloof of you!"     "I won't reproach: it was to be!"     Will dryly murmur Cicely;     And Rosa: "I feel no hostility,     For I must own I lent facility."     Lizzy says: "Sharp was my regret,     And sometimes it is now! But yet     I joy that, though it brought notoriousness,     I knew Love once and all its gloriousness!"     Says Patience: "Why are we apart?     Small harm did you, my poor Sweet Heart!     A manchild born, now tall and beautiful,     Was worth the ache of days undutiful."     And Anne cries: "O the time was fair,     So wherefore should you burn down there?     There is a deed under the sun, my Love,     And that was ours. What's done is done, my Love.     These trumpets here in Heaven are dumb to me     With you away. Dear, come, O come to me!"