FLIGHT.

MEMORY! that which I

gave

thee

To guard in thy garner yestreen―

Little deeming thou e'er could'st behave thee

Thus basely-hath gone from thee clean!

Gone, fled, as ere autumn is ended

The yellow leaves flee from the oak

I have lost it forever, my splendid

Original joke.

What was it? I know I was brushing

My hair when the notion occurred:

I know that I felt myself blushing

As I thought "How supremely absurd!

"They will quote it"-I wish I were able

To quote it just now.

I had thought to lead up conversation

To the subject--it's easily done-
Then let off, as an airy creation

Of the moment, that masterly pun.
Let it off, with a flash like a rocket's;

In the midst of a dazzled conclave,

While I sat, with my hands in my pockets,

The only one grave.

I had fancied young Titterton's chuckles,
And old Bottleby's hearty guffaws

As he drove at my ribs with his knuckles,

His mode of expressing applause:

FLIGHT.

While Jean Bottleby-queenly Miss Janet

Drew her handkerchief hastily out,

In fits at my slyness-what can it

Have all been about?

I know 'twas the happiest, quaintest
Combination of pathos and fun :

But I've got no idea-the faintest-
Of what was the actual pun.

I think it was somehow connected

With something I'd recently read

Or heard-or perhaps recollected

On going to bed.

What had I been reading? The Standard:

"Double Bigamy"; "Speech of the Mayor."

And later-eh? yes! I meandered

Through some chapters of Vanity Fair.

FLIGHT.

How it fuses the grave with the festive!

Yet e'en there, there is nothing so fine-

So playfully, subtly suggestive

As that joke of mine.

Did it hinge upon "parting asunder”?

No, I don't part my hair with my brush. Was the point of it "hair"? Now I wonder! Stop a bit-I shall think of it-hush!

There's hare, a wild animal-Stuff!

It was something a deal more recondite :

Of that I am certain enough;

And of nothing beyond it.

Hair-locks! There are probably many

Good things to be said about those

Give me time-that's the best guess of any-

"Lock" has several meanings, one knows.

FLIGHT.

Iron locks--iron-grey locks-a "deadlock "--
That would set up an every-day wit

Then of course there's the obvious "wedlock";
But that wasn't it.

No! mine was a joke for the ages;
Full of intricate meaning and pith;

A feast for your scholars and sages

How it would have rejoiced Sidney Smith.

'Tis such thoughts that ennoble a mortal;

And, singling him out from the herd,

Fling wide immortality's portal—

But what was the word?

Ah me! 'tis a bootless endeavor.

As the flight of a bird of the air

Is the flight of a joke-you will never

See the same one again, you may swear.