An Old Fan

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

(To Kitty, Her Reverie)

It is soiled, and quite passé,
Broken too, and out of fashion,
But it stirs my heart some way,
As I hold it here to-day,
With a dead year's grace and passion.
Oh, my pretty fan!

Precious dream and thrilling strain,
Rise up from that vanished season;
Back to heart and nerve and brain
Sweeps the joy as keen as pain,
Joy that asks no cause or reason.
Oh, my dainty fan!

Hopes that perished in a night
Gaze at me like spectral faces;
Grim despair and lost delight,
Sorrow long since gone from sight --
All are hiding in these laces.
Oh, my broken fan!

Let us lay the thing away --
I am sadder now, and older;
Fled the ballroom and the play --
You have had your foolish day,
And the night and life are colder.
Exit - little fan!