Lavender's For Ladies
By Patrick Reginald Chalmers
L AVENDER’S for ladies, an’ they grows it in the garden;
Lavender’s for ladies, an’ it’s sweet an’ dry an’ blue;
But the swallows leave the steeple an’ the skies begin to harden,
For now’s the time o’ lavender, an’ now’s the time o’ rue!
“Lavender, lavender, buy my sweet lavender,”
All down the street an old woman will cry;
But when she trundles
The sweet-smellin’ bundles,
When she calls lavender—swallows must fly!
Lavender’s for ladies (Heaven love their pretty faces);
Lavender’s for ladies, they can sniff it at their ease,
An’ they puts it on their counterpins an’ on their pillow-cases,
An’ dreams about their true-loves an’ o’ ships that cross the seas!
“Lavender, lavender, buy my sweet lavender,”
Thus the old woman will quaver an’ call
All through the city—
It’s blue an’ it’s pretty,
But brown’s on the beech-tree an’ mist over all!
Lavender’s for ladies, so they puts it in their presses;
Lavender’s for ladies, Joan an’ Mary, Jill and Jane;
So they lays it in their muslins an’ their lawny Sunday dresses,
An’ keeps ‘mdash fresh as April till their loves come ‘ome again!
“Lavender, lavender, buy my sweet lavender,”
Still the old woman will wheeze and will cry.
Give ‘er a copper
An’ p’r’aps it will stop ‘er,
For when she calls lavender summer must die!