Explore "Oiling" by Norman Gale on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(A Song In and Out of Season.)
Excuse me, Sweetheart, if I smear, / With wisdom learnt from ancient teachers, / Now winter time once more is here, / This grease upon your lengthy features! / Behaving thus, your loyal friend / No whit encourages deception: / Believe me, Fairest, in the end / This oil will better your complexion. / Fairest, believe!
Did you imagine in the bag / To sleep the sleep of Rip Van Winkle, / Removed from sunshine's golden flag / And duller daylight's smallest twinkle? / Well have you earned your rest; but yet, / Although disturbance seem uncivil, / Unless your cheeks and chin be wet / With oil, your beauteousness will shrivel. / Rarest, believe!
Absorb, that, when for our delight / The May unpacks its lovely blossom, / With beaming face, with shoulders bright / You leave the bag's congenial bosom. / Then shall the Lover and his Lass / Walk out toward the pitch together, / And, glorying in the shaven grass, / Tackle, with mutual faith, the leather. / Dearest, absorb!