How pleasant it is to sit and dream While evening clouds paint the western sky . . . Before I could tell my harebrained scheme To the setting sun, it waved good-bye
If I may I'll share my plan with you: Since all hopes and dreams of love lie spent, Now and then I'll write a poem or two Relating memoirs that I'll invent
What jealous passions might I provoke From the wretched souls that only know Loneliness, unaware of the joke That I'm playing to hide my own woe
Wait until they read of my wild nights, Strutting with a suitor on each arm, Painting the town red. These vile delights Will bring gasps and be cause for alarm
Then there'll be the poems of quiet hours When love's very essence lays its hand On my heart like dew upon the flowers. How the flames of envy will be fanned!
But here I sit, while the midnight stroke Brings tears of loneliness to my eyes; What fantasies my poems may evoke! (But you and I know they're only lies)