POEMS
PANGLOSS' SONG
(A suppressed comic-operetta lyric)
*
Dear boy, you will not hear me speak
With sorrow or with rancor
Of what has paled my rosy cheek
And blasted
it
with canker;
'Twas Love, great Love, that did the deed,
Through Nature's gentle laws,
And how should ill effects proceed
From so divine a cause?
Sweet honey comes from bees that sting,
As
you are well aware.
To one adept in Reasoning,
Whatever pains Disease may bring
Are but the tangy seasoning
To Love's delicious fare.
II
Columbus and his men, they say,
Conveyed the virus hither
Whereby my features rot away
And vital powers wither;
Yet had they not traversed the seas
And come infected back-
Why, think of all the luxuries
That modem life would lack!
All bitter things conduce to sweet,
As
this example shows.
*
Removed from the recent production of
Candide
after the show's opening
night in Boston.
