ROMISES are lightly spoken;

Vows on which we blindly build

(Utter'd only to be broken)

Go for ever unfulfill'd.

Oft betray'd, but still believing—

Duped again and yet again—

All our hoping, all our grieving

Warns us, but it warns in vain.

From the cradle and the coral—

From the sunny days of youth—

We are taught a simple moral,

Still we doubt the moral's truth.

When a boy they found, me rather

Loth to do as I was bid.

'I shall buy a birch," said father—

Broken vows! He never did.

Grown extravagant, when youthful,

In my tailor's debt I ran;

He appear'd about as truthful

In his talk as any man.

Let me tell you how he sold me:

"Look you, Mr What's-Your-Name,

I shall summons you," he told me—

But the summons never came!

Through the meadows, daisy-laden,

Once it was my lot to stray,

Talking to a lovely maiden

In a very loving way;

And I stole a kiss—another—

Then another—then a lot.

"Fie!" she said, "I 'll tell my mother."

Idle words; she told her not.

When a party who dislikes me

Promises to "punch my head,"

'Tis an empty phrase, it strikes me,

They are words too lightly said.

Not since Disappointment school'd me,

Have I credited the truth

Of the promises that fool'd me

In my green and gushing youth.