Rondeau

Rondeau.
218.8

I promised to obey? Perhaps that’s so
I do not? Well, that, too, I think I know.
You see, I’d no experience of men.
You weren’t a bear, who growled about his den;
Your claws and teeth you were too smart to show.

Oh, but you were a most delightful beau!
So deferential! And you’d come and go
And fetch and carry as I told you when
I promised to obey.

It was not likely I would answer “No”
When I was asked that question then, but oh,
I wish that I might have that chance again!
Why, dear me! I was young and foolish then.
Yet, don’t suppose I ever meant it, though
I promised to obey.