One Day I Got A Missive

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One day I got a missive
  Writ in a dainty hand,
  Which made my manly bosom
  With vanity expand.
  ’Twas from a “young admirer”
  Who asked me would I mind
  Sending her “favorite poem”
  “In autograph, and signed.”

  She craved the boon so sweetly
  That I had been a churl
  Had I repulsed the homage
  Of this gentle, timid girl;
  With bright illuminations
  I decked the manuscript,
  And in my choicest paints and inks
  My brush and pen I dipt.

  Indeed it had been tedious
  But that a flattering smile
  Played on my rugged features
  And eased my toil the while.
  I was assured my poem
  Would fill her with delight —
  I fancied she was pretty —
  I knew that she was bright!

  And for a spell thereafter
  That unknown damsel’s face
  With its worshipful expression
  Pursued me every place;
  Meseemed to hear her whisper:
  “O, thank you, gifted sir,
  For the overwhelming honor
  You so graciously confer!”

  But a catalogue from Benjamin’s
  Disproves what things meseemed —
  Dispels with savage certainty
  The flattering dreams I dreamed;
  For that poor “favorite poem,”
  Done and signed in autograph,
  Is listed in “Cheap Items”
  At a dollar-and-a-half.

© Eugene Field