ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 27
Farewell to London Town
MY dear, the time has come to say
Farewell to London town,
Farewell to each familiar street,
The room where we looked down
Upon the people going by,
The river flowing fast :
The innumerable shine of lamps,
The bridges and—our past.
Our past of London days and nights,
When every night we dreamed
Of Love and Art and Happiness,
And every day it seemed
Ah ! little room, you held my life,
In you I found my all;
A white hand on the mantelpiece,
A shadow on the wall.
My dear, what dinners we have had,
What cigarettes and wine
In faded corners of Soho,
Your fingers touching mine !
And now the time has come to say
Farewell to London town ;
The prologue of our play is done,
So ring the curtain down*
From A. Song of Parting, by
H. C. Compton Mackenzie
The Laughing and the Weeping
T AUGH, and the world laughs with you,
JL/ Weep, and you weep alone ;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer ;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you,
Grieve, and they turn and go
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many ;
Be sad, and you lose them all:
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gap.
Ella Wheeler Wilcooc