Fly Leaves

<h2><SPAN name="page71"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>PLAY.</h2> <p class="poetry"><span class="smcap">Play</span>, play, while as yet it is day:<br/> While the sweet sunlight is warm on the brae!<br/> Hark to the lark singing lay upon lay,<br/> While the brown squirrel eats nuts on the spray<br/> And in the apple-leaves chatters the jay!<br/> Play, play, even as they!<br/> What though the cowslips ye pluck will decay,<br/> What though the grass will be presently hay?<br/> What though the noise that ye make should dismay<br/> Old Mrs. Clutterbuck over the way?<br/> Play, play, for your locks will grow gray;<br/> Even the marbles ye sport with are clay.</p> <p class="poetry">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<SPAN name="page72"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>Play, ay in the crowded highway:<br/> Was it not made for you?&nbsp; Yea, my lad, yea.<br/> True that the babes you were bid to convey<br/> Home may fall out or be stolen or stray;<br/> True that the tip-cat you toss about may<br/> Strike an old gentleman, cause him to sway,<br/> Stumble, and p&rsquo;raps be run o&rsquo;er by a dray:<br/> Still why delay?&nbsp; Play, my son, play!<br/> Barclay and Perkins, not you, have to pay.</p> <p class="poetry">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Play, play, your sonatas in A,<br/> Heedless of what your next neighbour may say!<br/> Dance and be gay as a faun or a fay,<br/> Sing like the lad in the boat on the bay;<br/> Sing, play&mdash;if your neighbours inveigh<br/> Feebly against you, they&rsquo;re lunatics, eh?<br/> Bang, twang, clatter and clang,<br/> Strum, thrum, upon fiddle and drum;<br/> <SPAN name="page73"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>Neigh, bray, simply obey<br/> All your sweet impulses, stop not or stay!<br/> Rattle the &ldquo;bones,&rdquo; hit a tinbottom&rsquo;d tray<br/> Hard with the fireshovel, hammer away!<br/> Is not your neighbour your natural prey?<br/> Should he confound you, it&rsquo;s only in play.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />