Comes a train of little ladies <br />From scholastic trammels free, <br />Each a little bit afraid is, <br />Wondering what the world can be! <br /> <br />Is it but a world of trouble - <br />Sadness set to song? <br />Is its beauty but a bubble <br />Bound to break ere long? <br /> <br />Are its palaces and pleasures <br />Fantasies that fade? <br />And the glory of its treasures <br />Shadow of a shade? <br /> <br />Schoolgirls we, eighteen and under, <br />From scholastic trammels free, <br />And we wonder - how we wonder! - <br />What on earth the world can be!<br /><br />William Schwenck Gilbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/speculation/
