Tell me truly, quaint repeater,
When will she permit me greet her?
Tell me when you sweetly chime--
Name the day, and strike the time.
On my heart you beat so gaily,
Where her heart has beaten daily;
She should think of us at night,
When we two count hours in flight.
Quaint repeater, friend diurnal
(Like a truthful, faithful journal),
Make the minutes pass away,
Speed the night, and hasten day.
Do you keep the hours correctly?
Hands that move so circumspectly
Ought, punctiliously, to show
When a lad to lass should go.
Quaint repeater, faster, faster,
If you would avert disaster;
Make the long days swiftly fly,
Greeting hour is surely nigh.
How can I exist in anguish,
When for her I fret and languish?
Quaint repeater, may I rest,
Where you lay, upon her breast!