Farewell

"Farewell!" Another gloomy word
        As ever into language crept.
    'Tis often written, never heard,
                Except

    In playhouse. Ere the hero flits,
        In handcuffs, from our pitying view.
    "Farewell!" he murmurs, then exits
                R. U.

    "Farewell" is much too sighful for
        An age that has not time to sigh.
    We say, "I'll see you later," or
                "Good by!"

    When, warned by chanticleer, you go
        From her to whom you owe devoir,
    "Say not 'good by,'" she laughs, "but
                'Au Revoir!'"

    Thus from the garden are you sped;
        And Juliet were the first to tell
    You, you were silly if you said
                "Farewell!"

    "Farewell," meant long ago, before
        It crept, tear-spattered, into song,
    "Safe voyage!" "Pleasant journey!" or
                "So long!"

    But gone its cheery, old-time ring;
        The poets made it rhyme with knell,
    Joined it became a dismal thing,
                "Farewell!"

    "Farewell!" into the lover's soul
        You see Fate plunge the fatal iron.
    All poets use it. It's the whole
                Of Byron.

    "I only feel, farewell!" said he;
        And always fearful was the telling,
    Lord Byron was eternally
                Farewelling.

    "Farewell!" A dismal word, 'tis true
        (And why not tell the truth about it!);
    But what on earth would poets do
                Without it?