The Snake
Thomas Moore
My love and I, the other day,
Within a myrtle arbor lay,
When near us, from a rosy bed,
A little Snake put forth its head.
"See," said the maid with thoughtful eyes --
"Yonder the fatal emblem lies!
Who could expect such hidden harm
Beneath the rose's smiling charm?"
Never did grave remark occur
Less à -propos than this from her.
* * * * *
I rose to kill the snake, but she,
Half-smiling, prayed it might not be.
"No," said the maiden -- and, alas,
Her eyes spoke volumes, while she said it --
"Long as the snake is in the grass,
One may, perhaps, have cause to dread it:
But, when its wicked eyes appear,
And when we know for what they wink so,
One must be very simple, dear,
To let it wound one -- don't you think so?"
Juvenile Poems.
