 
|
In
Divers Tones
by
Charles G.D. Roberts
Edited
by Tracy Ware
|
A
BIRTHDAY BALLADE
|
|
All
deserted to wind and to sun
You have left the dear, dusky
canoe,
The amber cool currents still run,
But our paddle forgets to pursue.
Our river wears still the rare
blue,
|
5 |
But
its sparkle seems somehow less gay;
It confides me this greeting for
you—
Many Happy Returns of the Day!
Where’s the mirth that with morn was begun,
Nor dreaded the dark and the
dew?
|
10 |
Some
sweet thieves have made off with our fun!
Would our paddles were free to
pursue!
Ah, could we but catch them anew,
Clip their wings, forbid them to stray,
Then more blithely we’d
sing than we do—
|
15 |
| Many
Happy Returns of the Day!
Dear remembrances die, one by one,
So cunning Time’s craft
to undo!
But ours must be never undone,
Oft again must the paddle pursue,
|
20 |
Oft
the treasured impression renew!
Then, return our Acadian way,
For our days of delight were too
few—
Many Happy Returns of the Day!
L’ENVOI.
|
25 |
Now
an easy enigma or two
This ballade is devised to convey.
Unto you, and us lonely ones too,
Many Happy Returns of the Day!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
