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<p><SPAN name="ZENOBIA" id="ZENOBIA"></SPAN></p> <ins class="caption">ZENOBIA</ins> <div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_030.jpg" height-obs="640" width-obs="239" alt="Zenobia in her jeweled fetters." /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Zenobia was empress of the people of Palmyra;<br/></span> <span class="i2">She tried to boss the army when she should have stayed at home.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Aurelian, the soldier, led a sort of a hegira<br/></span> <span class="i2">Of armies up to fight her—they came all the way from Rome.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Full soon he was pursuing them, with spears and daggers "shooing" them,<br/></span> <span class="i2">At last he sent them to defeat and caught the doughty queen.<br/></span> <span class="i0">He captured her regretfully, he said, but she said fretfully<br/></span> <span class="i2">That she considered him a spiteful thing, and very, very "mean."<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">He led her back a captive with her hands in jeweled fetters,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Though she cast on Aurelian a look of proud disdain;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Her manacles were carved and chased and decked by jewel setters,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And to securely hold her he had made a golden chain.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">There is a lot of mystery connected with all history—<br/></span> <span class="i2">Zenobia, they tell us, didn't want to go to jail,<br/></span> <span class="i0">But, think of such a fate as that! Why, such a jeweled weight as that<br/></span> <span class="i2">Was better than to pawn your clothes and be released on bail!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Zenobia was taken to the royal Roman palace<br/></span> <span class="i2">And there the charming prisoner, we read, was quite the rage—<br/></span> <span class="i0">Had she lived in this time of ours (we say this without malice),<br/></span> <span class="i2">She might have made a lasting hit by going on the stage.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Aurelian was nice to her—he hinted more than twice to her<br/></span> <span class="i2">That he was getting pretty tired of kinging it alone.<br/></span> <span class="i0">You see, she might have captured him—already she enraptured him—<br/></span> <span class="i2">And had that handcuff jewelry to wear upon the throne.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">But, no! Zenobia was like 'most any other lady—<br/></span> <span class="i2">They've been the same since mother Eve; they have the same way still:<br/></span> <span class="i0">No matter if it's Princess May, or Susie, Sal or Sadie,<br/></span> <span class="i2">No lady will consent to be convinced against her will.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">At last they told her civilly, "You'll have to live in Tivoli"<br/></span> <span class="i2">(Which may or may not be the way to speak that city's name).<br/></span> <span class="i0">She answered very prettily: "I'll love to live in Italy"—<br/></span> <span class="i2">And there she stayed until she was an old, forgotten dame.<br/></span> <br/></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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