The Giddy Girl

[This recitation is intended to be given with an accompaniment of waltz music, introducing dance-steps at the refrain "With one, two, three," etc.]

A giddy young maiden with nimble feet,
Heigh-ho! alack and alas!
Declared she would far rather dance than eat,
And the truth of it came to pass.
For she danced all day and she danced all night;
She danced till the green earth faded white;
She danced ten partners out of breath;
She danced the eleventh one quite to death;
And still she redowaed up and down -
The giddiest girl in town.
With one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three - kick;
Chassee back, chassee back, whirl around quick.
The name of this damsel ended with E -
Heigh-ho; alack and a-day!
And she was as fair as a maiden need be,
Till she danced her beauty away.
She danced her big toes out of joint;
She danced her other toes all to a point;
She danced out slipper and boot and shoe;
She danced till the bones of her feet came through.
And still she redowaed, waltzed, and whirled -
The giddiest girl in the world.
With one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three - kick;
Chassee back, chassee back, whirl around quick.

Now the end of my story is sad to relate -
Heigh-ho! and away we go!
For this beautiful maiden's final fate
Is shrouded in gloom and woe.
She danced herself into a patent top;
She whirled and whirled till she could not stop;
She danced and bounded and sprang so far,
That she stuck at last on a pointed star;
And there she must dance till the Judgment Day,
And after it, too, for she danced away
Her soul, you see, so she has no place anywhere out of space,
With her one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three - kick;
Chassee back, chassee back, whirl about quick.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet, born on November 5, 1850, and died on October 30, 1919. She was known for her works expressing optimistic views and moral lessons. Her most famous book was 'Poems of Passion'. Her poem 'Solitude' contains the famous lines, 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone'. Over her career, Wilcox became popularly known as a 'people's poet'.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Presentiment

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The River

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Circumstance

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

English

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The Phantom Ball

You remember the hall on the corner?
    To-night as I walked down street
I heard the sound of music,
    And the rhythmic beat and beat,
In time to the pulsing measure
    Of lightly tripping feet.

And I turned and entered the doorway -
    It was years since I had been there -
Years, and life seemed altered:
    Pleasure had changed to care.
But again I was hearing the music
    And watching the dancers fair.

And then, as I stood and listened,
    The music lost its glee;
And instead of the merry waltzers
    There were ghosts of the Used-to-be -
Ghosts of the pleasure-seekers
    Who once had danced with me.

Oh, 'twas a ghastly picture!
    Oh, 'twas a gruesome crowd!
Each bearing a skull on his shoulder,
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The Dance

When good-nights have been prattled, and prayers have been said,
And the last little sunbeam is tucked up in bed,
Then, skirting the trees on a carpet of snow,
The elves and the fairies come out in a row.
    With a preening of wings
    They are forming in rings;
Pirouetting and setting they cross and advance
In a ripple of laughter, and pair for a dance.

And it's oh for the boom of the fairy bassoon,
And the oboes and horns as they strike up a tune,
And the twang of the harps and the sigh of the lutes,
And the clash of the cymbals, the purl of the flutes;
    And the fiddles sail in
    To the musical din,
While the chief all on fire, with a flame for a hand,
Rattles on the gay measure and stirs up his band.

With a pointing of toes and a lifting ...

R. C. Lehmann

Only A Dancing Girl

Only a dancing girl,
With an unromantic style,
With borrowed color and curl,
With fixed mechanical smile,
With many a hackneyed wile,
With ungrammatical lips,
And corns that mar her trips!

Hung from the "flies" in air,
She acts a palpable lie,
She's as little a fairy there
As unpoetical I!
I hear you asking, Why
Why in the world I sing
This tawdry, tinselled thing?

No airy fairy she,
As she hangs in arsenic green,
From a highly impossible tree,
In a highly impossible scene
(Herself not over clean).
For fays don't suffer, I'm told,
From bunions, coughs, or cold.

And stately dames that bring
Their daughters there to see,
Pronounce the "dancing thing"
No better than she should be.
With her skirt at he...

William Schwenck Gilbert

A Waltz-Quadrille.

        The band was playing a waltz-quadrille,
    I felt as light as a wind-blown feather,
        As we floated away, at the caller's will,
    Through the intricate, mazy dance together.
        Like mimic armies our lines were meeting,
        Slowly advancing, and then retreating,
    All decked in their bright array;
        And back and forth to the music's rhyme
        We moved together, and all the time
    I knew you were going away.

        The fold of your strong arm sent a thrill
    From heart to brain as we gently glided
        Like leaves on the wave of that waltz-quadrille;
    Parted, met, and again divided -
        You drifting one way, and I another,
        Then suddenly turning and facing each other,
    Then off in the blithe c...

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The Last Dance

WHEN LOVE FOR HIS MAKER AWOKE IN MAN, THE DANCE BEGAN

The wave of the ocean, the leaf of the wood,
In the rhythm of motion proclaim life is good.
The stars are all swinging to metres and rhyme,
The planets are singing while suns mark the time.
The moonbeams and rivers float off in a trance,
The Universe quivers - on, on with the dance!

Our partners we pick from the best of the throng
In the ballroom of Life and go lilting along;
We follow our fancy, and choose as we will,
For waltz or for tango or merry quadrille;
But ever one partner is waiting us all
At the end of the programme, to finish the ball.

Unasked, and unwelcome, he comes without leave
And calls when he chooses, 'My dance, I believe?'
And none may refuse him, and none may say no;
W...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Dance

Heel and toe, heel and toe,
That is the song we sing;
Turn to your partner and curtsey low,
Balance and forward and swing.
Corners are draughty and meadows are white,
This is the game for a winter's night.

Hands around, hands around,
Trip it, and not too slow;
Clear is the fiddle and sweet its sound,
Keep the girls' cheeks aglow.
Still let your movements be dainty and light,
This is the game for a winter's night.

Back to back, back to back,
Turn to your place again;
Never let lightness nor nimbleness lack,
Either in maidens or men.
Time hasteth ever, beware of its flight,
Oh, what a game for a winter's night!

Slower now, slower now,
Softer the music sighs;
Look, there are beads on your partner's brow
Though there be l...

Paul Laurence Dunbar