The Broken Engagement, Page 2 Of 4 Poem by John Bliven Morin

And so I stopped the carriage
There and then, and said,
“There shall be no marriage;
I set you free to marry
Whom you choose and where,
In France or here at home.
You needn’t, dearest, have a care
Our bonds are broken.”

Omitting the celebration,
I turned the carriage about,
Back to the railway station
We’d left an hour before,
And there I did insist
On purchasing her passage,
And we chatted then kissed
As the next train arrived.
We waved our last “goodbye”
As her train left for the coast;
I was surprised my eyes were dry
As I climbed back on my carriage.
Once home, I did a little dance,
For she’d given me no time to
Mention the vast inheritance
I’d gotten while she was gone.


Part Two,1900

It was a very lovely thing,
Taking the steamer over
To visit Paris in the spring;
I and my second wife.
T'wasn’t the first trip we made
To the Continent, of course,
But the first in a decade
My Mary was quite happy.
Some business too, I must admit
Encouraged me to schedule
This unpremeditated trip
To settle a problem there.
'Dear, I can already smell
Those lovely flowers
The Parisian vendors sell! '
My Mary said, laughing.
'And you shall have bouquets
My dearest lady love
Not once, but all the days
We stroll the avenues! '