DISENCHANTED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue VII, 18 August 1894, Page 168

DISENCHANTED.

I SAW her at a minstrel-show, And passing fair was she ; I wondered if her voice and mind As beautiful could be.

I worshipped at a distance Until the end man spoke, When my soul was chilled with sadness, For she laughed at the minstrel’s joke.

So old and stale and weary That joke was that he sprung, The (ire-bells of tbe city Rebuking should have rung.

I could have borne the ‘ chestnut,’ But from my dream I woke When I saw her overcome with mirth At that wretched minstrel joke.

Had she spoken in loud, uncultured tones And talked even slang in such, Or eaten of peanuts from a bag, I shouldn’t have cared so much.

But that brief charm her beauty cast No more can aught evoke ; For I saw her laughing, half-convulsed. At a weary minstrel joke. Graph.