Once, when I was young and true,
  Someone left me sad--
Broke my brittle heart in two;
  And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
  Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
  And that, I think, is worse.

So silent I when Love was by
He yawned, and turned away;
But Sorrow clings to my apron-strings,
I have so much to say.

There was a rose that faded young;
I saw its shattered beauty hung
  Upon a broken stem.
I heard them say, "What need to care
With roses budding everywhere?"
  I did not answer them.

There was a bird, brought down to die;
They said, "A hundred fill the sky--
  What reason to be sad?"
There was a girl, whose lover fled;
I did not wait, the while they said,
  "There's many another lad."

Authors and actors and artists and such
Never know nothing, and never know much.
Sculptors and singers and those of their kidney
Tell their affairs from Seattle to Sydney.
Playwrights and poets and such horses' necks
Start off from anywhere, end up at ***.
Diarists, critics, and similar roe
Never say nothing, and never say no.
People Who Do Things exceed my endurance;
God, for a man that solicits insurance!

Woman wants monogamy;
Man delights in novelty.
Love is woman's moon and sun;
Man has other forms of fun.
Woman lives but in her lord;
Count to ten, and man is bored.
With this the gist and sum of it,
What earthly good can come of it?

Death's the lover that I'd be taking;
Wild and fickle and fierce is he.
Small's his care if my heart be breaking--
Gay young Death would have none of me.

Hear them clack of my haste to greet him!
No one other my mouth had kissed.
I had dressed me in silk to meet him--
False young Death would not hold the tryst.

Slow's the blood that was quick and stormy,
Smooth and cold is the bridal bed;
I must wait till he whistles for me--
Proud young Death would not turn his head.

I must wait till my breast is wilted.
I must wait till my back is bowed,
I must rock in the corner, jilted--
Death went galloping down the road.

Gone's my heart with a trifling rover.
Fine he was in the game he played--
Kissed, and promised, and threw me over,
And rode away with a prettier maid.

The entire city could be asleep
All cars gone, no longer speeding by
The ghosts of strangers in a hurry
The sound of night wind howling
All the little apartments still in the dark
A few drunken people stumbling here and there
And still, I would wait for you on the sidewalk.