This poem also appears in Cambridge Magazine Summer, 1920 [#] Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table, Sings Cambridge Magazine Summer, 1920 55 and Spring in New Hampshire 1920 [†] Claude McKay Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table, Sings Claude McKay Spring in New Hampshire London Grant Richards Ltd. 1920 13 .
Alfonso is a handsome bronze-hued lad
Of subtly-changing and surprising parts;
His moods are storms that frighten and make glad,
His eyes were made to capture women's hearts.
Down in the glory-hole1 Alfonso sings
An olden song of wine and clinking glasses
And riotous rakes2; magnificently flings
Gay kisses to imaginary lasses.
Alfonso's voice of mellow music thrills
Our swaying forms and steals our hearts with joy;
And ,†# when he soars, his fine falsetto trills
Are rarest notes of gold without alloy.
But,†# O !†# Alfonso!,†# wherefore do you sing
Dream-songs of carefree men and ancient places?
Soon we shall shall we†# be beset by clamouring
Of hungry and importunate palefaces3.