Poems (Robert Underwood Johnson)/"I Begged a Kiss of a Little Maid"

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"I BEGGED A KISS OF A LITTLE MAID"
I begged a kiss of a little maid;
 Shyly, sweetly, she consented;
Then of a sudden, all afraid,
 After she gave it, she repented;
And now as penance for that one kiss
She asks a poem—I 'll give her this.

But how can my song be my very best
 When she, with a voice as soft as Circe's,
Has charmed the heart from my lonely breast—
 The heart, the fountain of all true verses?
Why, oh, why should a maid do this?
No—I must give her back her kiss.

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