  YOU know how it is—you have had the gain, The sweetness and pleasures of life, I the fruitless striving, the heat to attain, The toil, the failure, the strife. Then we chance to come by the will of fate To the warmth of one woman’s eyes, And fate decrees it is not too late To give me a great surprise. And the woman turns with matchless grace The bloom of her tender cheek, And her red lips smiling—her glorious face, Her glance so loving and meek. To me—to the penniless bankrupt one, And I find my portion at last, And heaven as real, when all is done, As the hell of the bitter past. The glories of earth are but chaff in the wind, The riches of earth but a song, Now listen, my brother, I think you will find You have tried to do me a wrong. You had all that to me had been denied, I starved while you feasted well, You have fame, and a hundred things beside, You have watched your coffers swell. Yet when we come by the will of fate To the warmth of one woman’s eyes, And fate declares it is not too late To give me a great surprise. You come with the weight of your yellow gold, And the trappings of your success; You come with your bearing, courtly and bold, You woo in your haughtiness. You try to dazzle her eyes of blue, And you try to steal for yourself The heart of a woman good and true, Go, be content with your pelf. Learn there are treasures you may not grasp, Joys you must surely miss, The hand you court lies in my clasp The lips are my own to kiss. A penniless fellow! you used to say— Own to the truth if you can— We stand here together this summer’s day, And I am the richer man. |
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