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The Wiccamical Chaplet

a selection of original poetry; comprising smaller poems, serious and comic; classical trifles; sonnets; inscriptions and epitaphs; songs and ballads; mock-heroics, epigrams, fragments, &c. &c. Edited by George Huddesford
  
  

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EPITAPH ON AN OLD MAID IN A COUNTRY VILLAGE.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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EPITAPH ON AN OLD MAID IN A COUNTRY VILLAGE.

[_]

The attribution of this poem is questionable.

Good Friends, farewell; here end my cares,
And all my virgin hopes and fears;
Tho' I'm persuaded, had I tarried
Much longer here, I'd ne'er been married.
My manners, troth, were plain and downright,
Not the fine lady, nor the clown quite:—
Throughout my life, whate'er I cou'd,
I daily aim'd at doing good;
Kind office ne'er refus'd to neighbour;
A handy body at a labour;
At wedding-feasts I've bak'd and boil'd,
And ne'er one dish for malice spoil'd:

97

I milk'd the kine, I penn'd the fold;
Content, my richest mine of gold;
Cheerfulness clos'd the busy day:—
Themselves sure meed the Virtues pay.
At harvest-home I shone away,
Tho' but an indiff. Queen o' the May:
'Tis true my features were but coarse,
And yet, they would not fright a horse:
Some 've said, that I'd prefer a halter
E'er go with man unto the altar;
Ne'er but in this I gave denial—
Tho' I don't say that here I'd trial:
Proud Miss! suppose the worst, the most,
'Tis the fate of many a flaunting toast;
If ne'er a sorry fellow ask'd me:—
Haply, for you they ne'er had pass'd me.
And still I've left good fame behind me,
So see that no reproach you find me.