Two children, "once upon a time,"
In the summer season,
Woke to life--the one was Rhyme,
The other's name was Reason.
Sweet Poesy enraptured prest
The blooming infants to her breast.
Reason's face and form to see
Made her heart rejoice;
Yet there was more of melody
In Rhyme's delicious voice;
But both were beautiful and fair,
And pure as mountain stream and air.
As the boys together grew,
Happy fled their hours--
Grief or care they never knew
In the Paphian bowers.
See them roaming, hand in hand,
The pride of all the choral band.
Music with harp of golden strings,
Love with bow and quiver,
Airy sprites on radiant wings,
Nymphs of wood and river,
Joined the Muses' constant song
As Rhyme and Reason pass'd along.
But the scene was changed--the boys
Left their native soil--
Rhyme's pursuit was idle joys,
Reason's manly toil.
Soon Rhyme was starving in a ditch,
While Reason grew exceeding rich.
Since that dark and fatal hour
When the brothers parted,
Reason has had wealth and power--
Rhyme's poor and broken-hearted.
And now, on bright or stormy weather,
They twain are seldom seen together.