The last romantic
Time went away, and left him lingering
The last romantic in a little town
He drowses in the twilight,fingering
A scrap of muslin from on antique gown
Old odors find his nostrils when he drowses:
Cedar,Amontillado,lavender ;
And white facades of stately Georgian houses
Grow in the air to make a frame for her
She have been dead for thirty years or more ;
And been could she come,eyes glistening,
He would not hear her fingers strike the door :
He has gone deaf from too much listening
He has gone deaf,and time has gone away
The oleander flowers soon will pass
His julep stands forgotten on a tray
And "pickwick" sprawls forlornly on the grass
Over the garden drifts a scent of musk
And in the fringes of the fading light
Round hills, like lonely opals in the dusk
Deepen to purple, and are one with night