The Humourous Poetry of the English Language

453
On the deck of a steamer;
She spoke in language warm,
Like a sentimental dreamer.
He spoke--at least he tried;
His position he altered;
Then turned his face aside,
And his deep-ton'd voice falter'd.
She gazed upon the wave,
Sublime she declared it;
But no reply he gave--
He could not have dared it.
A breeze came from the south,
Across the billows sweeping;
His heart was in his mouth,
And out he thought 't was leaping.
"O, then, Steward!" he cried
With the deepest emotion;
Then totter'd to the side,
And leant o'er the ocean.
The world may think him cold,
But they'll pardon him with quickness,
When the fact they shall be told,
That he suffer'd from sea-sickness.
"OH! WILT THOU SEW MY BUTTONS ON?"
[Footnote: "Wilt thou love me then as now" and "I will love thee then
as now" were two popular songs in 1849]
AND
"YES, I WILL SEW THY BUTTONS ON!"
PUNCH.
[Just at present no lyrics have so eclatant a succes de societe as the
charming companion ballads which, under the above pathetic titles,
have made a fureur in the fashionable circles to which the fair
composer, to whom they are attributed in the causeries of May Fair and
Belgravia (The HON. MRS. N--T--N), belongs. The touching event to
which they refer, is the romantic union of the HON. MISS BL--CHE DE