At the Club

When a pretty maiden passes

    By the window down the street,

    Cards and billiards lose their sweet;

Conversation on old brasses

Languishes; up go the glasses:-

    "Nice complexion!" "Dainty feet!"

When a pretty maiden passes

    By the window down the street.

Smith forgets the "toiling masses,"

    Robinson, the fall in wheat;

    All the club is indiscret.

Ah, the wisest men are asses

When a pretty maiden passes

    By the window down the street!

Richard Hovey

Index to poems in the collection by Richard Hovey