Romance, a play boy who is born each spring To teach the nightingale to sing A very pretty song: "I love you". Romance, a legend on an old brocade, A prince who tells a country maid: "I love you". Now where this whimsy comes from, I don't know; For when it comes it's just about to go. Romance, a flower that will bloom awhile With sunshine from a lover's smile, That lover's tears bedew! Ah! Yet, when I seek this beauty, Flower of youth's first dawning, I find a prosy work-a-day world Stretching and yawning! Love is locked up in cages, Kept for a poet's pages; Life and adventure Don't seem to be paying attention to me! And so I dream of fair Romance And let my fancies weave pretty stories. And tho' I know they are not so, I like to go wand'ring amid their wistful glories. My princes become what I mold them, And they stay for the breath of a sigh! I open my arms to enfold them, And they're gone like a breeze rushing by. Ah, this is a humdrum world, But when I dream I set it dancing. When life is gray, I have a way to keep it gay, Passing the time of day with love.