Bid adieu, adieu,
adieu,
Bid adieu to
girlish days.
Happy
Love is come to
woo
Thee and woo thy girlish ways--
The zone that doth become thee fair,
The
snood upon thy yellow hair.
When thou hast heard his name upon
The bugles of the cherubim
Begin thou softly to unzone
Thy girlish bosom unto him
And softly to undo the snood
That is the sign of maidenhood.
- James Joyce, Chamber Music.
Rejected by Harper's magazine in January 1907. The last line was engraved on a bracelet for Nora Barnacle in September 1909.