Ballade Of Roulette

This life--one was thinking to-day, In the midst of a medley of fancies - Is a game, and the board where we play Green earth with her poppies and pansies. Let manque be faded romances, Be passe remorse and regret; Hearts dance with the wheel as it dances - The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette. The lover will stake as he may His heart on his Peggies and Nancies; The girl has her beauty to lay; The saint has his prayers and his trances; The poet bets endless expanses In Dreamland; the scamp has his debt: How they gaze at the wheel as it glances - The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette! The Kaiser will stake his array Of sabres, of Krupps, and of lances; An Englishman punts with his pay, And glory the jeton of France is; Your artists, or Whistlers or Vances, Have voices or colours to bet; Will you moan that its motion askance is - The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette? ENVOY. The prize that the pleasure enhances? The prize is--at last to forget The changes, the chops, and the chances - The wheel of Dame Fortune's roulette.