She's all my fancy painted her, she's lovely, she's divine,
But her heart it is another's, she never can be mine.
Yet loved I as man never loved, a love without decay,
Oh, my heart, my heart is breaking for the love of Alice Gray.
Rischi, my dear, you romantic idiot, my yellow feathered bird, listen to me this time for a change and for your own good - don't fall in love with Laura, don't let Laura fall in love with you.
Her dark brown hair is braided o'er a brow of spotless white,
Her soft blue eye now languishes, now flashes with delight;
Her hair is braided not for me, the eye is turned away,
Yet my heart, my heart is breaking for the love of Alice Gray.
It's happened before and it'll happen again; when you're in late 20s - all the good girls your age are already taken. And you might think you're charming enough, your luck will never run out and that you can take a little more pain than is already there. You can dream that destiny will knock on your door and hug you with an open smile, but you've learnt the hard way before, and you can choose to learn the easier way now - life is not a movie, good guys don't always have to win. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake, and the world doesn't revolve around you. If life is a drama, you're not the hero. It's happened before, you'd knock on that door, and maybe she'll let you in; but to her secret garden? Go take a hike. You can feel, but can not touch ... all you have is a tenuous link through little eight-point font. Be content, be thankful.
I've sunk beneath the summer's sun, and trembled in the blast.
But my pilgrimage is nearly done, the weary conflict's past;
And when the green sod wraps my grave, may pity haply say,
Oh, his heart, his heart is broken for the love of Alice Gray!
And let Laura love the one she loves, let her life go on with peace. The one she loves is a better man (maybe not, but definitely luckier) than you. If she falls in love with you somehow; would that be fair to him in any way? What has he done for you to pain him? Why does he deserve to change places with you? Do her and your self a favor, do not fall in love with Laura and do not let Laura fall in love with you...

 


inline poem: Alice Gray by William Mee