TELL me truly, quaint repeater,
When will she permit me greet her?
Tell me when you sweetly chime—
Name the day, and strike the time.
On my heart you beat so gaily,
Where her heart has beaten daily;
She should think of us at night,
When we two count hours in flight.
Quaint repeater, friend diurnal
(Like a truthful, faithful journal),
Make the minutes pass away,
Speed the night, and hasten day.
Do you keep the hours correctly?
Hands that move so circumspectly
Ought, punctiliously, to show
When a lad to lass should go.
Quaint repeater, faster, faster,
If you would avert disaster;
Make the long days swiftly fly,
How can I exist in anguish,
When for her I fret and languish?
Quaint repeater, may I rest,
Where you lay, upon her breast!