Fin de Fête

By Charlotte Mew 1869–1928 Charlotte Mew

Sweetheart, for such a day

One mustn’t grudge the score;

Here, then, it’s all to pay,

It’s Good-night at the door.

Good-night and good dreams to you,—

Do you remember the picture-book thieves

Who left two children sleeping in a wood the long night through,

And how the birds came down and covered them with leaves?

So you and I should have slept,—But now,

Oh, what a lonely head!

With just the shadow of a waving bough

In the moonlight over your bed.

Biography

The life of turn-of-the-twentieth-century British writer Charlotte Mew was full of tragedy from beginning to end. Mew was born in London in 1869 into a family of seven children; she was the eldest daughter. While she was still a child, three of her brothers died. Later, another brother and then a sister were committed to mental hospitals in their twenties where they would spend the rest of their lives. That left only Charlotte . . .

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