Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD LETTERS, by W. L. KITCHEL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD LETTERS, by                    
First Line: There's a letter from home I was dreading
Last Line: Together blaze billet and bill.
Subject(s): Fire; Letters


THERE's a letter from home I was dreading,
Invitations to dinners and teas,
And even a bid to a wedding, --
That wedding, alas! was Marie's, --
A bundle of bills unreceipted,
A message or two from the Dean;
But no longer the flames shall be cheated, --
They'll kindle without kerosene.

Some letters, about which there lingers
A perfume subtle and sweet,
A fragrance that came from her fingers
As she daintily folded the sheet.
And I read every one of them over, --
What mem'ries of summer they bring! --
But I master the sighs of a lover,
And all in the fire I fling.

A spray of sweet pea and some heather,
And a lock of her tresses comes last, --
In a pile I heap them together,
A funeral pyre to the past.
A sigh for those notes that I cherish,
A smile for those that bode ill, --
A scratch of a match, and they perish, --
Together blaze billet and bill.





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