Original

"Ride a fine horse

To Banbury Cross,

To see a young woman

Jump on a white horse.

Rings on her fingers,

And bells on her toes,

And she shall have music

Wherever she goes."

Prophetic Dame! What hadst thou in

view?

A modern wedding in Fifth Avenue?

Where,—like the goddess of a heathen

shrine,

With offerings heaped in such a glittering

show

As must have emptied a Peruvian mine,

And would suggest, but that we better

know,

Marriage must be a bitter thing indeed,

And, like the Prophet of the Eastern tale,

Must wear a very ugly face, to need

Such careful shrouding in the silver

veil,—

Her bridal pomp, as a white palfrey, mount-

ing,

Caparisoned at cost beyond all counting,

With diamond-jewelled fingers, and the

toes

Ditto, for all that anybody knows,

The smiling damsel goeth to the Banns?

(Why add the "bury," or suggest the

"cross,"

As if such brilliant ringing of the hands

Preluded aught of trial or of loss?)

Shall not Life's golden bells still tinkle

sweet,

And merry music make about her feet?

Shall not the silver sheen around her spread,

A lasting light along her pathway shed?

No mocking satire, surely, hides a sting,

Nor bitter irony a truth foreshows,

In the gay chant the cheery dame doth

sing,—

"She shall have music wheresoe'er she

goes"?

She shall have music! Shall she sit apart,

And let the folly-chimes outvoice the

tone

That comes up wailing to the listening

heart,

From the great world, where misery

maketh moan?

Ah, Mother Goose! if such the tale it tells,

Sing us no more your rhyme of rings and

bells!

But may not—'twere a rare device in-

deed!—

The wondrous oracle in both ways read?

And call up, as a fair beatitude,

The gracious vision of true womanhood,

That with pure purpose, and a gentle might,

Upheld and borne, as by the steed of white,

Pledged with her golden ring, goes nobly

forth

To trace her path of joy along the earth,—

And, as she moves, makes music, silver-shod

"With preparation of the peace" of God,

That holds the key-note of celestial cheer,

And hangs heaven's echoes round her foot-

steps here?