A Girl, who has so many wilful ways She would have caused Job’s patience to forsake him; Yet is so rich in all that ’s girlhood’s praise, Did Job himself upon her goodness gaze, A little better she would surely make him. Yet is this girl I sing in naught uncommon, And very far from angel yet, I trow. Her faults, her sweetness, are purely human; Yet she ’s more lovable as simple woman Than any one diviner that I know. Therefore I wish that she may safely keep This womanhede, and change not, only grow: From maid to matron, youth to age, may creep, And in perennial blessedness, still reap On every hand of that which she doth sow.
Her Likeness
More from Poet
-
[September 20, 1854] WILLIE, fold your little hands; Let it drop,—that “soldier” toy; Look where father’s picture stands,— Father, that here kissed his boy Not a mouth since,—father kind, Who this night may (never mind Mother’s sob, my Willie dear) Cry out loud that He may hear Who is God of...
-
“CARRY me across!” The Syrian heard, rose up, and braced His huge limbs to the accustomed toil: “My child, see how the waters boil? The night-black heavens look angry-faced; But life is little loss. “I ’ll carry thee with joy, If needs be, safe as nestling dove: For o’er...
-
“Some cotton has lately been imported into Farringdon, where the mills have been closed for a considerable time. The people, who were previously in the deepest distress, went out to meet the cotton: the women wept over the bales and kissed them, and finally sang the Doxology over them.”—...
-
From the near city comes the clang of bells: Their hundred jarring diverse tones combine In one faint misty harmony, as fine As the soft note yon winter robin swells. What if to Thee in thine infinity These multiform and many-colored creeds Seem but the robe man wraps as masquers’ weeds Round...
-
“Dowglas, Dowglas, tendir and treu” COULD ye come back to me, Douglas, Douglas, In the old likeness that I knew, I would be so faithful, so loving, Douglas, Douglas, Douglas, tender and true. Never a scornful word should grieve ye, I ’d smile on ye sweet as the angels do; Sweet as your...