Roulette

This life - one was thinking to-day,

In the midst of a medley of fancies -

Is a game, and the board where we play

Green earth with her poppies and pansies.

Let manqué be faded romances,

Be passé remorse and regret;

Hearts dance with the wheel as it dances -

The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette.

 

The lover will stake as he may

His heart on his Peggies and Nancies;

The girl has her beauty to lay;

The saint has his prayers and his trances;

The poet bets endless expanses

In Dreamland; the scamp has his debt:

How they gaze at the wheel as it glances -

The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette!

 

The Kaiser will stake his array

Of sabres, of Krupps, and of lances;

An Englishman punts with his pay,

And glory the jeton of France is;

Your artists, or Whistlers or Vances,

Have voices or colours to bet;

Will you moan that its motion askance is -

The wheel of Dame Fortune

 

The prize that the pleasure enhances?

The prize is - at last to forget

The changes, the chops, and the chances -

The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette.

 

Ballad of Roulette

Andrew Lang

1844-1912

Done