Shadow Of A Shade

Comes a train of little ladies
From scholastic trammels free,
Each a little bit afraid is,
Wond'ring what the world can be!

Is it but a world of trouble
Sadness set to song?
Is its beauty but a bubble
Bound to break ere long?

Are its palaces and pleasures
Fantasies that fade?
And the glory of its treasures
Shadow of a shade?

Schoolgirls we, eighteen and under,
From scholastic trammels free,
And we wonder - how we wonder!
What on earth the world can be!
- W.S. Gilbert from The Mikado