From our Emancipated Aunt in Town

ALL has befallen as I say,
The old régime has passed away,
And quite a new one

Is being fashioned in a fire,
The fervours of whose burning tire
And quite undo one.

The fairy prince has passed from sight,
Away into the ewigkeit,
With best intention

I served him, as you know my dears,
Unfalteringly through more years
Than ladies mention.

And though the fairy prince has gone,
With all the props I leaned upon,
And I am stranded,

With old ideals blown away,
And all opinions, in the fray,
Long since disbanded.

And though he's only left to me,
Of course quite inadvertently,
The faintest glimmer

Of humour, to illume my way,
I'm thankful he has had his day,
His shine and shimmer.

Le roi est mort--but what's to come?--
Surcharged the air is with the hum
Of startling changes,

And our great "question" is per force
The vital one, o'er what a course
It boldly ranges!

Strange gentlemen to me express
At quiet "at homes" their willingness,
To ease our fetters

And ladies, in a fleeting car,
Will tell me that the moderns are
My moral betters.

My knees I know are much too weak
To mount the high and shaky peak
Of latest ethics,

I'm tabulated, and I stand
By evolution, in a band
Of poor pathetics

Who cannot go alone, who cling
To many a worn out tottering thing
Of a convention;

To many a prejudice and hope,
And to the old proverbial rope
Of long dimension.

It is to you to whom I look
To beautify our history book,
For coming readers,

To you my nieces, who must face
Our right and wrong, and take your place
As future leaders.

And I, meanwhile, shall still pursue
All that is weird and wild and new,
In song and ballet,

In lecture, drama, verse and prose,
With every cult that comes and goes
Your aunt will dally.

A microscopic analyst
Of female hearts, she will subsist
On queerest notions,

And subtlest views of maid and wife
Ever engaged in deadly strife
With the emotions.

But while you walk, and smile at her,
In quiet lanes, which you prefer
To public meetings,

Remember she prepares your way,
With many another Aunt to-day,
And send her greetings.