 | English Roses |  |
COUNTRY GIRL.
English girl,Shy and saucy, rude and ready
For the error and the stripe;
In a petticoated whirl
Here, and there with footstep steady
Doing little duties bidden,
But for ever though so chidden
Romping-ripe!
Well, I know those honest eyes
Gray and glancing,
Or entrancing
With a soft and sudden flame
As at some detected shame,
Like the light of clouded skies;
69
Which Erasmus loved and knew,
When he got that honey-dew
Leaving his dull record starlit.
Yes, beneath the shabby clothes
And the shady touch of grime
Or the crudeness
Sometimes sauced with ugly oaths,
Is a rosebud at its prime—
Nature in her pretty nudeness;
And when floods in anger swirl,
Or the fire is seven times hotter
And the potter
Thrusts in vesels to refine,
You come out unscathed, divine,
English girl.
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