BANBURY CROSS. "Ride a fine horse To see a young woman Jump on a white horse. Rings on her fingers, And bells on her toes, And she shall have music Wherever she goes.", PROPHETIC Dame! What hadst thou in thy view? A modern wedding in Fifth Avenue? As must have emptied a Peruvian mine, And would suggest, but that we better know, Marriage must be a bitter thing indeed, And, like the Prophet of the Eastern tale, Must wear a very ugly face, to need Such careful shrouding in the silver veil, Her bridal pomp, as a white palfrey, mount ing, Caparisoned at cost beyond all counting, With diamond-jewelled fingers, and the toes Ditto, for all that anybody knows, The smiling damsel goeth to the Banns? (Why add the "bury," or suggest the 66 cross," As if such brilliant ringing of the hands Shall not Life's golden bells still tinkle sweet, And merry music make about her feet? Shall not the silver sheen around her spread, A lasting light along her pathway shed? No mocking satire, surely, hides a sting, In the gay chant the cheery dame doth sing, "She shall have music wheresoe'er she goes"? 60 BANBURY CROSS. She shall have music! Shall she sit apart, And let the folly-chimes outvoice the tone That comes up wailing to the listening heart, From the great world, where misery maketh moan? Ah, Mother Goose! if such the tale it tells, Sing us no more your rhyme of rings and bells! But may not 't were a rare device indeed! The wondrous oracle in both ways read? And call up, as a fair beatitude, The gracious vision of true womanhood, That with pure purpose, and a gentle might, Upheld and borne, as by the steed of white, |