Main Text
Leigh Hunt first published this delightful poem (which he labelled a Rondeau, though hardly in the technical sense of that term) in The Monthly Chronicle for November 1838. It was inspired by an impulsive greeting from Jane Welsh, wife of the eminent historian and critic Thomas Carlyle. Hunt had been seriously ill, and Jane’s greeting was charged with both affection and relief.
Rondeau
Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in;
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.
